Winning is all that matters to Martin Gould, who admits he produced a below-par performance to get beyond Hossein Vafaei.

The Pinner potter scraped past the Iranian cueman in the third round of the Betway UK Championship despite producing four half-century breaks.

Gould admits he started to wobble after seeing his 5-2 lead trimmed to 5-4 but insists he was delighted to get the job done.

He said: “It was a weird one to be honest. It was an incredibly scrappy game to start off with.

“After the interval I started playing better, got 5-2 up, and then fell apart.

“For some reason, it felt like I couldn’t pot a ball for two frames.

“When he missed a yellow in the last frame I just said to myself ‘this is my last chance’ because if it had gone to a decider my head would’ve been in the dustbin.”

Gould has never made it beyond the quarter-finals on the baize in York and hopes he can produce his best play in the latter stages of the competition.

He added: “The biggest thing is you have a W next to your name so it means you’re still in the event.

“I just need to focus on myself. If I don’t, nobody else will be. So, I must do what I need to do and not worry about anyone else.

“I’m in the last 16 and I’ve played absolute garbage this week so it cannot be too bad.

“I haven’t played too well yet but as they say, ‘you don’t want to peak too soon’. You never know, it’s one match at a time and one ball at a time.”

Watch LIVE coverage of the UK Championship on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds