PETER MANLEY has revealed that practice is not yet making perfect in his bid to win a Holsten Premier League Darts play-off place.
Manley got back to winning ways in the Premier League with an 8-6 win over previously unbeaten league leader Dennis Priestley in Aberdeen.
The world number four took advantage of a poor finishing display from Priestley to keep himself in the hunt for a top four finish.
However, he revealed that his hard work at improving his scoring has yet to pay off.
"Dennis will be more disappointed about losing than I am getting excited about winning," said Manley.
"You're happy with any win but I know I got away with it and I've got to improve.
"My scoring ability is the thing I've been working on in my game and it was a little bit more controlled against Dennis.
"It's not a case of the darts being too big, I'm just not following it closely enough so it's something I'm working on in my game.
"It's not annoying me at the minute, but I have to work on it now so that in six-to-eight months time when the World Championship comes around I'm ready."
Priestley was off-target with attempted doubles in six of the eight legs Manley won, but the victor added: "I work hard on my doubles - but with the nickname "One Dart" you have to!
"The finishing was good against Dennis, in one particular leg I hit a 174 and then a 107 finish and that was a little blow."
Manley missed out on a semi-final place in the final league night last year, but is not putting himself under pressure to make the top four this time around.
"It's too early to start putting that worry onto my shoulders," said Manley, who meets Roland Scholten at Blackpool's Winter Gardens this Thursday.
"At the end of the day, we come each week to win each game, and if we do that then it becomes easy.
"Raymond van Barneveld, Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley may think they are probably going to be in the four, but Dennis may think of the defeat as a wake-up call because he lost to someone near the bottom."