STEPHEN Maguire was left kicking himself after a slow start against Ronnie O’Sullivan cost him a place at the Betway UK Championship final.

Maguire was far from his best as the five-time world champion rattled off three half-century breaks on his way to a 4-0 lead at the interval. But the 36-year-old rallied to win four of the next five frames before the Rocket produced a break of 63 – to add to his earlier 111 century break –to edge over the line and into today’s final.

“I’d have liked to have taken it to 5-5 because you could see he was starting to rock a little bit,” Maguire said. “Nobody likes it when someone is coming back at them.”

Yet Maguire knows that gifting O’Sullivan a four-frame head start was too big a gap to bridge.

“It [going 4-0 down] definitely cost me,” he said. “I just didn’t settle until the interval at 4-0. Then it’s too late. I put up a bit of a fight but I had lost in those first four frames sadly.

“I hate losing. I lost that before the interval which I’m gutted about, but even at the end I fancied doing the job.I wasn’t looking at the scoreboard because I knew if I was in I could clear up. It’s a pity it was too late.

“I was speaking to my dad and my manager John Rea at the break.

I usually smash up the changing room, but I felt OK. I wasn’t blaming my own game. By the time I relaxed it was too late.”

O’Sullivan now heads into his seventh UK Championship final, where he will face Shaun Murphy after he defeated Ryan Day 6-3, but he believes he is lucky to have made it all the way.

“I’ve got lucky, everyone’s seemed to struggle against me and you’ve seen the snooker. I’ve definitely not been producing what I have been producing over the last couple of months,” he admitted.

“I’ve felt like this week I’ve dug in and it’s all down to positive mental attitude.”

Watch LIVE coverage of the UK Championship on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.