BASILDON potter Allan Taylor is determined to stay positive after he missed the chance to give himself the perfect 30th birthday present at the UK Snooker Championship.

Taylor will hit the milestone tomorrow and just two days before the big one, he arrived at the Barbican in York for a first-round clash with former UK champion Matthew Stevens.

After surrendering the opening three frames he hit back twice in quick succession – including a 94 break in the fourth – but world No.108 Taylor was eventually beaten 6-2.

However he won’t let the defeat set him back and, once the birthday festivities are over, it will be back to the practice table, rather than back to the Barbican.

“I’ll have a couple of days off because it’s my birthday on Friday – I turn the big 3-0,” he said. “I’ll drive back down to Essex, have a couple of days off and enjoy my birthday.

“And then I’ll get back to it at the weekend, looking forward to the next event. My preparation is great for every tournament – I’ve been working hard on the mental side of my game.

“I know I’ve got the talent and the cue action – it’s about having that belief in yourself and it’s about the mental side because it can be tough out there.

“It will always be better tomorrow, so it’s back to the practice table and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Taylor came into the tournament off the back of an opening-round defeat to Adam Duffy in Germany’s Ruhr Open last week.

But the 29-year-old insists he arrived in York in confident mood and ready to overturn the 2003 champion.

That is not how it panned out, however, and Taylor was left to lament a handful of errors that allowed Stevens to take control of the contest.

“Coming into a tournament, I always back myself to get a result,” he added.

“But I didn’t play my best – full stop.

“I made a few careless mistakes and got a couple of kicks out there, which scuppered a few of my breaks.

“I’d made a good break to go 3-1 into the interval – I felt good coming back out and made it 3-2 before a few uncharacteristic misses on my behalf.

“A bit of run of the ball here and there cost me, but I’m not blaming that because, at the end of the day, it’s the numbers on the board that matter.”

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