Ross Smith is keeping his feet on the ground despite a second players’ championship title.

Deal’s Smith edged a topsy-turvy Player Championship 5 Final, defeating Gary Anderson 8-6 in Barnsley.

It was a second PDC ProTour title for Smith, who claimed the Cazoo European Championship crown in Dortmund, Germany, in October. The win also moved him into the world’s top 16.

But after his Final success, Smith said: “To be fair, I don’t even think about things like that.

“I really don’t, I just play the player in front of me. The minute you start thinking stuff like that, it can go for you but it can go against you.

“I’m one of those that tries to keep their feet on the ground and crack on sort of thing. I try not to think about that sort of stuff, just concentrate on whoever is in front of me and, if I win, happy days.”

Anderson came from 5-2 down to lead but Smith believes he thoroughly deserved the third title of his career.

“I felt a bit edgy,” said the 34-year-old, who lost on Sunday in the Player Championship 6 Quarter-Final 6-4 to Luke Humphries, despite averaging 106.

“I thought ‘Oh, here we go again’ sort of thing but I just told myself: ‘Stop thinking, just do’ really.

“To be honest with you, I think I got away with it. We all know Gary is better than that and, to be fair, I think I’m better than that.

“But it’s a long day and, yeah, I’m grateful for the win.”

It’s been a rapid rise in recent months for Dover-born Smith but he admitted he came into the weekend down on confidence.

He said: “I had a really bad start to the year last year. I couldn’t buy a game, to be fair.

“Nothing has been great for me on the floor and, even for this week, I’ve turned up and my shirt is too small. I’ve shrunk that in the wash!

“The barbers screwed my hair up so my barnet has gone. Nothing is going right for me on the floor at the moment.

“But today, I’m just really happy to win that. I wasn’t expecting it, to be fair.

“My confidence hasn’t been the greatest of late but I’m really happy, obviously, to win.”

Now, though, everyone on the darts circuit across the world is aware of Smith’s talents.

But he hasn’t set any targets for the year, saying: “All I’m looking to achieve, honestly I swear to God, I’m looking to achieve tomorrow.

“I’ll go on and try to beat whoever is in front of me. I genuinely mean that.

“I’m not setting myself targets, like ‘Oh, you’ve got to win a major, got to get to the quarters or the semis’ - none of that, I’m not interested.

“All I know is, if I beat whoever’s in front of me, I’m still in. That’s all that matters. No one else matters.

“If I win my game in front of me, it doesn’t matter about anyone else. Then I’m into the next one and I’ll try to win that one, and so on and so on.”

Smith failed to qualify for both Euro Tours this week but did qualify for ET6 in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.