Merseyside pair Stephen Bunting and Michael Smith face off in quarter-final of World Darts Championship

St Helens is guaranteed that one player from the town will reach the semi-final stages of the Cazoo World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace.

Stephen Bunting and Michael Smith have qualified for the quarter finals of the £2.5million tournament and now face each other on New Year’s Day for a spot in the last four.

Both had comfortable 4-1 victories in the last 16 stage of the competition on Friday - The Bullet brushing aside the challenge of Luke Humphries of Newbury and Bully Boy ousting Bradford’s highly-rated Joe Cullen.

But who will triumph in the clash of the two local lads when they meet at 2.30pm on January 1? It’s anybody’s guess after the manner of their performances in the earlier rounds.

Neither player has been under any kind of undue pressure and so far taken everything in their stride, but now the business end of the competition has been reached. Whoever keeps an ice-cool nerve is likely to take a further step towards lifting the most prestigious trophy in the sport.

You can watch the match live on Sky Sports Arena, online via the Sky Go app or through Now TV.

Quarter final draw: Bunting v Smith, Gerwyn Price (Wales) v  Gabriel Clemens (Germany), Dimitri Van den Burgh (Belgium) v Jonny Clayton (Wales), Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) v Chris Dobey (England).

The final is scheduled for Tuesday, January 2.