'Getting close is not good enough': Clare not interested in moral victory as Mayo seal promotion

'It’s time this team started winning against teams like this... I thought that this was a game we could have won and unfortunately we didn’t, and we left it after us'

Aidan O'Shea of Mayo and Darragh Bohannan of Clare contest a kickout. Picture:Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Challenge game buddies these two might be, and the scoreline might indicate same, but this was a rip-roaring Division 2 semi-final in Cusack Park.

Report intros may have been written at half time, given Mayo’s handsome 11-point advantage, 2-13 to 0-8, but such assumptions looked foolhardy as Clare came within a goal of last year’s All-Ireland runners-up in additional time.