Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen admits he is desperate to go one better at this season’s International Championship after two previous runners-up finishes.

The 32-year-old has reached the final of the event on two occasions but he lost both battles.

Allen was beaten by Mark Selby in last year’s showpiece match but he is determined to erase those memories after reaching the second round on Monday.

The world No.12 had to fight back after trailing 4-0 and then 5-2 to Liam Highfield.

Allen fired home breaks of 120, 127, 125 and 85 on his way to a 6-5 victory. He will now take on Hossein Vafaei, who beat Graeme Dott 6-3 with a top run of 136.

When asked about his chances, Allen told World Snooker: “If I had lost 6-1 I would have had no complaints, Liam was awesome at the start. He completely froze me out.

“At 4-0 I was just trying to be patient because I didn’t even know how I was playing, it wasn’t as if I had missed chances.

“Intervals can change matches and I scored really well to get back into it. I have reached two finals in this event and lost them both so it’s good and bad memories. It would be nice to go one better this week.”

Allen is 1.40 to win his match, while Judd Trump is also a short-priced favourite ahead of his meeting with Michael Holt.

Trump is as short as 1.25 to win, but a closer match is expected between Alfie Burden and David Lilley.

Lilley is 1.73 to win, with Burden 2.10 with Dafabet.