WINNING can become a welcome habit in darts, and Donegal star Dean Gallagher certainly seems to have acquired it.
This past week alone has shown how All Ireland winner Gallagher has got the taste for success on the oche.
Last weekend he became the Norman Blain Cup champion by beating a stellar line-up of players, including PDC star Mickey Mansell.
Just a day later, Dean added an ADC vault night to his growing list of accomplishments, before also winning the Limavady Dart League Pairs with his fellow Donegal county player Alan Hegarty.
This all comes just weeks after he was also part of the Donegal team that won a record 14th INDO Inter Counties title in Killarney.
While modest Dean has been taking all this success in his stride, he told Darts In Ireland that the standard is so strong in Donegal now that he can never rest on his laurels.
Dean said: "If you are winning competitions in Donegal then your game is in a good place as there are so many good players in the county now.
"It certainly gives you confidence to know that if you can beat them, you can beat anybody in the country."
And so it proved for Dean at the Norman Blain Cup last weekend, as he had to get past a series of fellow Donegal county players to lift the trophy.
His run to the final of that began with a 4-0 win over fellow county player Declan Quinn, before he also beat two other experienced county players Alan Byrne and Andrew Gillespie.
In his quarter final against Andrew, Dean raced into a 4-0 lead before being pegged back to 4-4, eventually winning the game with a 15 dart leg.
Dean said: "To beat those three players in a row I knew I was playing very well.
"I was then drawn out to play Mickey Mansell in the semi-final, and I was confident I could do well in that, even though we all know what a great player Mickey is."
Similar to his quarter final, Dean began like a rocket against Mansell, winning the first five legs without reply.
However he admitted to getting a bit anxious as Mansell slowly started to get back into the game by winning the next two legs, before Dean won the match with a stunning 164 checkout.
"I really believe that 164 had to go or Mickey would have won that leg, so it was a big relief to get over the line."
That left Dean facing veteran Donegal legend Charlie Grant in the final, which he says was the toughest match of all.
He said: "No disrespect to the other players but playing a player like Charlie in the final was so tough so I was delighted to win it."
Dean says the beating a proving PDC player like Mansell has given him the belief he can take on anyone in the game.
He showed that back in January when he made it through to the final stages of PDC Q School at his first time of trying.
He said he will return to Q School next year, and will also try to make it onto future Ireland teams through the INDO ranking events.
He said: "I will definitely be back at Q School next year as I felt I did very well this year at it and it was a great experience.
"Putting on an Ireland shirt is also something I would to do at least once in my career, but it is tough to get through those INDO ranking events,
"I will certainly go to the first few of them and see how I get on and if I'm high up the ranking I will be giving it a big shot.
"But there are so many avenues in darts now. Obviously I would love to make it onto the PDC but if not there is still the INDO and WDF events, while the ADC has opened up many opportunities now too."
Meanwhile, he says the game just keeps getting stronger in Donegal.
Dean said: "There has been a lot of effort put in to keep Donegal up there at the top of darts in Ireland and it has been great for us to win the last two All Irelands.
"We also have a very strong B team who I believe have a great chance of winning the B Inter Counties next month, and a number of those players will be pushing to make it onto our A team.
"It's great to have such strength in depth and it also means you have to keep improving yourself to stay in the team."
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