Both players battled it out until the early hours of New Year’s Eve, but it was Lloyd who finished strongly to take the last three sets and close out the match.

His reward is a quarter-final place and a guaranteed £7,000.

However, the 27-year-old insists he has every chance of progressing further in the tournament.

Lloyd said: ‘‘Alan Warriner will be back - but it’s all about me now. Nearly everybody else has got to play the second round but I know I’m already in the quarter-finals and I’m very happy.

‘‘I know what I’m capable of and all the other 31 players here know what I can do.

‘‘The trouble is I’ve never really performed at a televised event. But if I do hit form then everybody look out even Phil Taylor.

‘‘Phil knows what I’m capable of, he’s played me in the open tournaments and knows all about me.’’

Lloyd has dropped four places in the rankings since last year’s tournament, where he lost 3-0 to eventual runner-up John Part.

A rejuvenated Cliff Lazarenko proved too strong in the first round of the World Matchplay in July, and he also failed to clinch a second-round spot at the World Grand Prix in Dublin.

But the Witham thrower knows his game is coming together at just the right time.

He added: ‘‘If I can get the self belief in my own head and the confidence is there, I don’t care who is next. Everything is a bonus now.’’

Lloyd will face either Richie Burnett or Denis Ovens, who play each other this evening, in the last eight.