McCoy's Premier League play-off places are up for grabs when the penultimate round of the season takes place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on Thursday.
Fantastic
Taylor can secure his own place with a 7-0 or 7-1 win over Thornton in Liverpool, having turned his faltering season around with three wins and a draw over the past fortnight.
"It's been a great couple of weeks for me and it would be fantastic if I can qualify for the Play-Offs in Liverpool," said Taylor. "The Premier League's a marathon and it's important to peak at the right time.
"My results have improved and so have my performances. I know I'll need to play well against Robert because he's having a great season and he was superb when we last played in Brighton."
League leader Michael van Gerwen needs only a point from his game with Andy Hamilton in the night's opening fixture to ensure his place in the Play-Offs.
Van Gerwen had suffered only his third defeat of the season last Thursday, when he went down 7-5 to Whitlock, but bounced back to win a fifth UK Open Qualifier out of eight events on Sunday.
"Winning on Sunday was good preparation for me because I've got a couple of tough weeks ahead in the Premier League," said the Dutchman.
"Last week was disappointing for me and I don't like losing, but it's part of the game and you can't win for 14 weeks in a row. I missed too many doubles but it's a new game this week and I've got to make sure I win against Andy."
Hamilton, meanwhile, has to win both of his games - against van Gerwen and Wade - and hope that Thornton fails to defeat Taylor if he is to keep alive his feint hopes of a Play-Off place going into the final league night.
Fighting
The Stoke ace has lost his last four games, and admitted: "I've not performed for the last couple of weeks and I deserved what I've got, but I'm going to keep fighting.
"It's going to be hard to turn it around but games against Michael and James will bring the best out of me - they've got to!
"Having been in the semi-finals last year, the chance to be there again is driving me on but I know it's going to be even harder to get there now. Last year the table was a lot closer and this year the top four or five have pulled away from the bottom three."
2009 champion Wade could also seal a Play-Off place should he win both of his games on Thursday as he faces Whitlock and Hamilton, with van Barneveld looking to follow up his brilliant win over the left-hander last week with another victory against Lewis.