Luke Littler shrugged off the boos to book his place in the last eight of the PDC World Championship with a 4-2 win over former champion Rob Cross at Alexandra Palace.
The 18-year-old survived a minor scare as Cross came close to forcing a deciding set, earning the support of the raucous crowd which briefly threatened to rile the defending champion.
A charged-up Littler told Sky Sports: "I'm not bothered [about the crowd]. Can I just say one thing? You guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize money, so thank you for my money, thank you for booing me.
"I've just seen the stats but I wasn't really thinking of anything. I just wanted to win the game. It was hostile, nobody wanted me to win the game, but I proved them wrong."
Littler averaged almost 107 and fired 17 180s in a high quality contest that he had threatened to steamroller after easing into a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven clash.
But Cross, the 2018 champion, overcame a scruffy start and reduced the arrears to 3-2 after nailing a 126 checkout on the bull in the deciding leg.
Cross had clearly grasped the momentum, and after moving 2-1 up in the sixth set he missed a single dart at tops to level at 3-3 -- and was duly punished by Littler who took out the next two legs to reach the quarter-finals.
Earlier, world number 20 Ryan Searle averaged over 100 as he secured his fourth successive whitewash win with a 4-0 triumph over James Hurrell in Monday's other last-16 clash.
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Justin Hood eased through to the fourth round on his tournament debut by beating Ryan Meikle 4-1, despite not hitting the same heights as in his previous match.
Hood, who averaged 103 when knocking fifth seed Danny Noppert out in round two, opened up a 3-0 lead before Meikle responded with 146 and 147 finishes to take the fourth set.
Hood will face Josh Rock in the last 16, after the Northern Ireland star rebounded from losing the first set to cruise past Callan Rydz 4-1.