STEPHEN MAGUIRE marched into the quarter-finals of the Coral UK Snooker Championship after ending David Morris’ brilliant tournament with a 6-3 victory.

Morris had beaten world champion Mark Selby on the way to the last 16 but, from 3-3, Maguire pulled away as he set up tonight’s encounter with Marco Fu.

Maguire, who won the UK at the Barbican ten years ago, said: “I thought I played okay. It was a strange game. I was looking at the score, at 3-2, and I couldn’t believe it because I felt I was the only one making chances.

“He had a couple of cracking flukes to get involved in the game and it could have been anyone’s really. To pull away from 3-3, I am chuffed to bits.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan struck a 147 maximum break on the other table, which forced Maguire and Morris to halt their action, and the Scotsman said: “It didn’t bother me because I was sat in my seat. It was David who was on a 40 break and he had to stop and watch it. Obviously, seeing the last two reds - the guy is pretty awesome when it comes to 147s.”

Maguire added: “It (the tournament) starts all over again. Three more opponents, hopefully, and we will see what happens.

“Marco is tough. I watched the end of the game (Fu beat Murphy 6-5) and anyone could have won it in the end.

“He’s always a tough player to play. When he’s hot, he is sometimes unstoppable - it doesn’t matter who he plays. But when he is cold he can sometimes let you in a little bit easily. Hopefully, he is cold and I will pick up my chances.”

Morris said: “I potted some good balls but every time I went into the pack it just fell awkwardly. I don’t like to blame luck, because Stephen was the better player, but if I had more run I would have made better breaks.”

The Irishman, who has now made the last 16 at York for the past two years, added: “My consistency needs to improve. I have a couple of good tournaments and then a bad one.

“I am going to learn from that type of game. I am playing better on TV and getting more experience.”