JUDD TRUMP admitted he had two outrageous flukes to thank for saving his williamhill.com UK Snooker Championship campaign.

The game’s brightest star meets Ronnie O’Sullivan for a place in the quarter-finals today, but reflected on the amazing luck which helped him into the last 16.

Trailing 4-2 against Dominic Dale, Trump was a shadow of the long potting hero who thrilled fans on his way to the World Championship final in May.

Impatient, frustrated and a little ragged, Trump was practically throwing his cue at the ball in a desperate bid to pot his way out of trouble.

But, in the seventh frame, Lady Luck intervened to turn the match completely on its head.

First, he missed a long pot but fluked another red into a corner pocket. And later, in the same break, he smashed a pink off the jaws of the top pocket.

Back in his seat before the ball came to rest, Trump, and everyone in the auditorium, was stunned as it bounced off two cushions and fell into the middle pocket.

The world number eight needed no further encouragement, building an 83 break to clinch the frame before efforts of 53, 54 and 62 saw him home past Dale and into a potentially explosive clash with the Rocket.

“That completely changed it,” Trump said of the flukes. “Up until then, a few things had gone the other way and I was leaving him straight in.

“I had to fight and that frame really turned the game. I had a bit of momentum from then and, after that, he didn’t really have many chances.

“I got a bit impatient. I just wanted to get in among the balls, and I just have to cut that out if I am going to get close to Ronnie.”

Dale suffered his own bad luck in the final frame, a heavy kick when attempting to lay a snooker leaving the way clear for Trump to clinch the match.

That was unfair on the 39-year-old, who produced superb snooker early on to push the young prodigy to the edge.

After losing the opening frame to a 56 break, Dale retaliated with 118 and levelled the match going into the mid-session interval after Trump had forged ahead with 58 in the third.

Breaks of 41 and 61 gave Dale his two-frame advantage and Trump abandoned any pretence of safety play.

But the good fortune gave Trump renewed energy and he finally found the rhythm which had deserted him to push past a demoralised Dale.

Looking ahead to this afternoon’s O’Sullivan match, Trump added: “He’s playing the best snooker he has for a long time and feeling the best he has for probably four or five years.

“I think two or three years ago I might have been under pressure against him but now I enjoy playing him and I would say the pressure is still on him.

“He’s still expected to beat me – he’s expected to beat everyone – so I am just going to go out and enjoy it.”