TYRONE'S Mickey Mansell suffered PDC World Championship heartache as he lost in a sudden death decider to Jonny Clayton in their second round clash.
Mansell pushed his seeded opponent all the way before Welshman Clayton kept his nerve to win the last leg decider on double 5 and win the match 3-2 in sets.
It came after Mansell appeared to be on his way to causing an upset when he took a 2-0 lead in the final set with two massive checkouts that left Clayton on the ropes.
He took out a stunning 136 in the first leg of the deciding set and then bettered that in the next leg with a brilliant 154 checkout that even got a nod of approval off Clayton.
With Mansell on the cusp of victory, Clayton showed remarkable resilience to claw his back into that final set by winning the next two legs to bring to a tiebreak situation where one of the players needed to win by two clear legs.
However the game remained nip-and-tuck with each winning three of the next six legs to leave it tied at 5-5 and onto a sudden death leg.
Clayton had the darts in that leg, which proved crucial, as he was first to a double.
He missed double 10 to win the match with what would have been a stunning 128 finish, but returned to hit double 5 with his second dart.
Speaking afterwards, Clayton said he knew he was in for a tough match against Mansell, who recently made it to the semi-finals in the Grand Slam.
A relieved Clayton said: "I knew I had a very, very tough game, but for it to go to a last leg decider, I didn't expect that at all.
"I think I had chances before, Mickey definitely had chances before, so there's a lot of weight off my shoulders after that."
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