WILLIAM O'CONNOR and Steve Lennon are hoping to use their sensational run to the final of the BetVictor World Cup of Darts as a platform for further success.
The Irish pair, who teamed up for a second successive year at the World Cup, defeated England and the Netherlands on the way to the final, where they went down to Scotland's Gary Anderson and Peter Wright.
O'Connor landed his first PDC ranking title in May, with the world number 47 now looking to build on a successful first half of 2019 by making his mark in more televised tournaments.
"If you'd told me we would be in the World Cup Final before the tournament I would've taken it all day long," said World Cup ever-present O'Connor.
"But I've come to realise you have to start dreaming, and if the dream doesn't scare you then you're not dreaming big enough.
"So I knew we could do it and it's a pity we didn't go that one step further but I'm over the moon.
"I'm proud to represent Ireland and I was proud to lead Ireland with Steve into the World Cup Final. We'll be back next year to give it another go.
"I think we've earned a little bit of respect from what we did and next year a lot of teams won't want to play us.
"I think the European Tour has a massive part to play in our progression, getting used to playing in front of a big crowd helped us achieve what we did."
Lennon was starring in just his second World Cup of Darts, having soared up the PDC Order of Merit thanks to runs to the final of the Dutch Darts Masters and quarter-finals of the Players Championship Finals.
The world number 34 made his Premier League debut in Dublin as a Contender against Wright, and Lennon is also keen to continue his progression in the coming months.
"Getting to the final was immense. I thought we would have a good run, but I didn't honestly think we would get that far," Lennon admitted.
"I think we played brilliantly as a team and hopefully next year we will be able to do even better.
"Individually, we will take all the positives out of the weekend. Confidence is on a high even though we were gutted to lose the final, and we can both push on from here.
"I agree that playing on the European Tour has definitely helped our development a lot and will continue to do so."
O'Connor and Lennon will be in action at the Danish Darts Open in Copenhagen this weekend (June 14-16), with action shown on video.pdc.tv.