Model Forde reflects on the long road

APART from an unfortunate incident in a Leinster championship game in Croke Park two years ago which earned him a suspension and harmed his reputation for a while, life as an inter-county footballer has been quite fulfilling for Matty Forde.

He is the county’s only All Star and he has distinguished himself in the International Rules Series, but most of all he has won wide acclaim for his skill and his scoring ability. Few would doubt a capacity to hold down a regular place in any top team.

But, he hasn’t forgotten the bad days, from the time he made his debut in the league away to Fermanagh in early 1999, and played his first championship game against Longford. What he remembers about those early years is that Wexford were in Division Four, viewed among “the bottom three or four teams” in the country and that winning a few games in the league would have represented progress.

“At that time, a Leinster final couldn’t have been further from our minds. Getting a championship victory at that stage was all we wanted.’’

Qualifying for Division One (in 2005) was a big boost and with Pat Roe at the helm, further progress was reported. “We have had a big turnover of managers, but every one of them has brought us on. Jason Ryan has brought us that bit further.

“To be honest, until he took over the Clongeen job and they started to make progress in the championship, I knew very little about him. He played for Waterford and played against us a couple of times. His managerial style with Clongeen is well documented, it convinced a lot of lads to come back.’’

Winning the Division 3 title against Fermanagh was a major confidence-booster because they had been a bit of a bogey team. Then there was the bonus of Wexford football’s first silverware in a long time. “That was a monkey off our backs,’’ he points out.

As the build-up to Sunday’s final intensifies, the players have not forgotten how close they came to missing out on their fifth consecutive semi-final appearance — when Meath had them on the rack at half-time in Carlow and things looked gloomy.

The Wexford attack was starved of possession in the first half, but Forde felt confident that they could do damage if they got decent ball in the second half (which they did). At the same time, he admitted that few enough felt they would actually win the game.

“Tommy (Howlin) came on at half time with Adrian (Morrissey) and the two of them had a huge bearing on the outcome. Things started to click and we got on a bit of a roll. I think we played some brilliant football.

“Obviously there was a bit of pressure going in against Laois, in our fifth semi-final. But, with the belief we gained from the Fermanagh game and a couple of games through the league and then the Meath match, we went into it with high hopes. We were very confident. I think it showed in our performance that day.’’

At a personal level, the fact that the burden of responsibility in attack is more evenly shared has relieved him of the pressure he was previously subjected to. “Just look at our spread of scores in the league, in the Meath game and into the Laois game,’’ he says. “I think we had eight lads on the scoresheet the last day, which is brilliant.

“The pressure is well and truly off me, any team that looks at Wexford and say that if they concentrate on Matty Forde they’ll beat them are going to get a bit of a shock. I think a few teams have this year. Ciaran (Lyng) is there, PJ Banville is back and Red (Barry) is chipping in with scores. Eric Bradley is a scoring threat and Adrian Flynn our second highest scorer in the league, with something like 3-15 from play.’’

Nevertheless, he accepts this is probably their biggest game since they played Armagh in the Division One decider three years ago in 2005. With Dublin unmatched in Leinster over the last three seasons, he admits they are up against it.

Okay, Dublin weren’t over-impressive in the semi-final, but he points out they achieved what they set out to do and got back to another final.

“They won without getting into their higher gears. When they opened up against Louth in the second half, they put them away in 10 or 15 minutes. Dublin are capable of doing that to any team in the country, Westmeath made it very hard for them by putting a lot of bodies behind the ball, but they found the answers and a way through.’’

Wexford flopped in that league final against Armagh and he accepts that same fear might be a concern going into the final.

“It’s uncharted territory for all of us. To be honest we just don’t know how the lads are going to react until we get out there.”