Gerwyn Price offered no excuses after he crashed out of the PDC World Darts Championship before the weekend.

The Ice Man melted in a shock third round 4-2 defeat to Brendan Dolan late on Thursday night at Alexandra Palace.

Welsh No.1 Price – who was fifth seed and a former champion – admitted: “I am absolutely gutted with the chances I gave away.

“I was trying too hard and beating myself up.

“I just want to say, how much I appreciate the crowd that got behind me. I just couldn’t get a flow and Brendan took out every chance I gave him.

“Well done to him and hopefully I will learn from this.”

Northern Irishman Dolan held his nerve to close out the match with his first shot at tops after Price had clawed his way back from two legs down to level in the sixth set.

It was a crushing defeat for Welshman Price, who had been intent on repeating his victory in the behind-closed-doors tournament in 2021.

Dolan, who got through his second round match via a sudden death leg against his compatriot Mickey Mansell, had served an early warning when he took out the opening set with a 144 checkout.

His crisp finishing proved the difference as he nudged in front again at 2-1 on the bull, and 64 to repel Price’s advances to go 3-2 up and one set from victory.

Dolan looked set to be made to pay for missing a match-dart at bull at 2-0 in the sixth when Price hit back to break his throw, but the Northern Ireland 50-year-old saw it home in style.

Dolan told Sky Sports: “I was thinking we might go to a last leg but thank God it didn’t because I don’t know if I would have held myself together.”

Third seed Luke Humphries narrowly avoided following Price out of the tournament after recovering a 3-1 deficit to beat Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko 4-3.

Humphries, who has won three major titles this year, was forced to play with a spare set of darts after breaking a tip in practice earlier on Thursday, and averaged a disappointing 91.

But he dragged himself back from the brink as Pietreczko faltered, winning the last six legs of the match to seal victory.

“Mentally and physically that’s the toughest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Humphries told Sky Sports.

“I had 99 per cent of the crowd against me and the broken point before the game played on my mind. I was down and out and playing absolute dross, but I came back and showed a little bit of grit and determination.”