Masters / Paul Krishnamurty / 15 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Scottish player has the voodoo over the Melbourne Machine and that can continue at Wembley.

Having escaped miraculously from what appeared a certain first round exit, (saving my bacon in the process at short odds), Stephen Maguire can keep his Masters hopes alive by maintaining a fine head-to-head record against Neil Robertson.

'On Fire' Maguire was actually pretty dire for the first part of his match against Graeme Dott but, with a helping hand from his fellow Scot who struggled to get over the line, he actually found a bit of form towards the end of that 6-5 victory. Even if his overall standard wasn't anything to write home about, Maguire played better snooker than Robertson managed for his 6-4 win over Stephen Hendry. It's not that the Aussie isn't cueing well; he rarely disappoints in that department; rather it's that he just can't seem to minimise those costly unforced errors.

In the past, Maguire has appeared to hold a jinx over Robertson. The Scot overturned a sizeable deficit to scrape home 9-8 in their encounter at the recent UK Championships, and also comfortably dismissed the 'Melbourne Machine' in last year's World Championship. Even when he's had the edge in form, Robertson has struggled against Maguire. When they met at this same stage two years ago at Wembley, Robbo started a hot favourite on the back of some superb tournament winning form, but still ended up on the end of a comprehensive 6-2 scoreline.

I expect it will be closer this time, but with the same end result.