Ali Carter knew from the word go that he shouldn’t have played in the Dafabet Northern Ireland Open.

So with his self-confessed inevitable early exit now confirmed and a chance to get back and put in the hard yards, the Colchester cueman believes this in fact could be a blessing in disguise.

Carter was his harshest critic despite his first-round victory over Chen Zhe on Tuesday, but his poor form didn’t disappear as he crashed out to Xiao Guodong in the second round.

A second-frame 70 had suggested otherwise for the world No.13, but a series of poor misses stunned him into submission in the 4-1 defeat.

To his credit, Xiao made life more than difficult for Carter, breaks of 81, 70 and a final-frame 110 sent Carter packing, licking his wounds ahead of next week’s UK Championships.

“I was terrible, it was the same as the first match – I’ve done too much travelling to be anywhere near ready for this week,” he said.

“I can’t get on a practice table and haven’t really done much in a week, so I just feel like I haven’t even played on a table in ten days.

“In a way this feels like a blessing in disguise because I can actually go and practice and get ready for next week.

“You have family commitments, you travel and before you know it you’ve got to go out and pack your suitcase all over again.

“It gets very difficult to fit everything in.”

Carter shares of the opinion of a number of high-profile players in not enjoying tournaments which feature best-of-seven matches.

So with the UK Championships the next on his agenda, the two-time semi-finalist in the competition believes the best can come out in the longer format.

But the 38-year-old knows he’ll have to play a lot better than this if he is to add to his four ranking titles so far.

“These best-of-seven tournaments are so difficult to win so I’m looking forward to the UK Championships, it’s where I want to be playing,” he added.

“To his credit, Xiao played quite well as we saw in the breaks and there’s not too much you can do when you’re sat in your seat.

“But when I got chances, I didn’t take them so that definitely needs looking at.”

Watch the Northern Ireland Open LIVE on Eurosport, Eurosport Player and Quest with Colin Murray and daily studio analysis with Neal Foulds