Becoming Model footballers
Their three-point victory, and the resultant league semi-final date with Tyrone, is the clearest indication yet that Wexford are moving closer to football’s elite.
“Getting to the semi-finals meant everything to us, especially after the last few years when we’ve missed out on getting there on the last day once or twice,” said Halligan.
“We knew we’d made progress this year but it was vital to keep that going. To fall at the last hurdle against Laois again would have undone a lot of the good work we’ve put in. As it is, this is something concrete we’ve achieved, something else we can build on.”
If reaching the semi-finals is something of a watershed for this team, then so too is the ability to win a game when expectation was at its highest.
Last year, they were deprived of a semi-final berth when they lost tamely to Laois on the last day of the group stages, and they followed that with a stillborn challenge against Westmeath in the Leinster semi-final, after upsetting Kildare in the previous round.
“That Westmeath match was a huge game for us and we thought we had a great chance coming up to it. We started terribly though and were something like eight points down before we started to play. It was way too much to come back from. We just didn’t do it when he had to most.
“Even last Sunday week it was the same. The expectation was there against Galway that if we won, we had a spot in the semis, and we lost again.
“We needed to prove to ourselves that we could win when the expectation was on us and we did that this time.”
It all means a date with Tyrone in just under a fortnight’s time.
Wexford will be encouraged by their performances against those other Ulster giants, Armagh, this past two years that have delivered a narrow one-point defeat and a seven-point win.
“It will be tough,” said Halligan.
“We know we’ve won nothing yet. Tyrone have league, Ulster and All-Ireland titles, they’ve got real pedigree but we’re there now and we may as well go for it.
“There’s no point in going back into our shell and saying ‘that’s it, our season is a success whatever happens now’. We can’t settle for that.”
The only thing settled about Wexford seems to be their line-up and backroom staff. Halligan and fellow selectors Dec Carty and Micheal Furlong are with the senior set-up since 1999 and many of the players have put in similar tours of duty.
“A lot of the lads have been playing in their positions for two or three years now,” Halligan said.
“We have a very settled team and that starts with our goalkeeper John Cooper and the full-back line of Philip Wallace, Colm Morris and Niall Murphy.”
Wexford have juggled their resources well, with a number of panellists getting valuable playing time throughout the league. The game with Tyrone offers further opportunity to tweak bits and pieces before the focus turns to the ultimate goal in June.
“Having this game so close to our championship opener against Carlow is brilliant for us because there’s a long break between now and early June.
“This game will be as good as 20 practice matches because you don’t get to see what you want to see in challenge games, even if it was still Tyrone we were playing.”
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