Allen battles past Ford in Sheffield

Ireland's Mark Allen admitted he had to battle to lift himself as he completed a 10-4 victory over qualifier Tom Ford on the second morning of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.

The man from Antrim returned with an overnight 8-1 lead and victory appeared a formality but Ford put up a fight, taking three of the five frames.

Ford took the first frame of the day with breaks of 39 and 77 and added a 72 to win the second.

He took a 38-0 lead in the next before missing a regulation red and offering his opponent a way back in, Allen making 61 before fluffing a pink.

After Ford could not take advantage, 24-year-old Allen cleared from yellow to blue to claim a scrappy frame and take a 9-3 lead.

A break of 58 in the following frame from Ford saw him reduce the arrears to 9-4 at the mid-session break.

But Allen produced a break of 72 before rounding off his 10-4 win in exhibition style by deliberately fouling on the final black.

He said afterwards: "Was it 10-4 or 10-5? I honestly can't remember, as my head had gone. I never felt comfortable in the second session, but I had done enough.

"Normally I get nervous and feed off the nerves, but I was too relaxed, and a bit flat.

"Being 8-1 up you just feel it's a matter of time, and I didn't deal with it that well. Tom could have won every frame in that last session.

"I let myself get dragged down, and I never managed to be motivated, which you don't expect at the world championship."

Allen had gone close to a 147 - and an accompanying £157,000 (€177,379) prize - yesterday, breaking down at 122 after snookering himself on the green, and joked: "Was it a big cheque then? I wasn't thinking about it!

"I was nervous, it would have been treble my previous biggest payday. But I was unfortunate not to get a shot at the yellow, and I'll be better if it happens again."

Ford backed his opponent, a semi-finalist last year, to again make good progress and said: "Looking at the draw, Mark has a good chance of a decent run here."

On his own performance, he admitted: "I expected to play better, and made it too easy for him. With it being my debut, losing the first frame was massive.

"I have made a 59, missed a red, and he has cleared up.

"It is not often you might say the first frame in a best-of-19 was the turning point, but it was a bit for me. It was a huge blow to lose it in those circumstances."

On the other table, Martin Gould fought back well from 4-1 down to end the first session only a frame behind against Hong Kong's Marco Fu.

Fu led 2-0, the highlight being a break of 70, before Gould halved the deficit with a run of 58.

But a 56 set Fu on his way to a 3-1 advantage and he pinched the fifth after Gould carelessly fouled on the green.

Gould superbly went into the pack off two cushions from the black to set up a key break of 35 as he won the next - only for Fu to respond with a clearance of 112.

But Gould hit back with a 103 clearance to move within two frames and knocked in a 51 on his way to winning the final frame of the session, sealing the frame by potting yellow to blue before going in off when potting the pink.