Gavin Cummiskey talks to Wexford's All Star who is confident ahead of Sunday's semi-final against Tyrone, and of success in the championship

In any team sport a string of good results soon transforms the regular supporter into a bloodthirsty critic. It's easy to get used to the exhilaration experienced earlier this month at Wexford Park when the county footballers overcame Laois to make their first National Football League semi-finals in 50 years. With this spotlight, though, comes a heavy weight of expectation.

"A couple of years ago we were playing Division Two," says Mattie Forde. "There wouldn't be five hundred at a league game in Wexford and there was over five thousand against Laois. Success is going to bring expectation, we don't mind as we can deliver now where we couldn't even a year ago - we felt the expectations were nearly too much for us. Hopefully, the new self-belief will keep us going and keep our feet on the ground."

Normally the annual Forde interview is held off until the Leinster championship wheels around, a week in early June when Wexford are remotely newsworthy in the football stakes. The underdog tag line.

A change became evident last year when Pat Roe's lot made the provincial semi-finals and even danced through the qualifiers until they met Derry in July. Reaching mid-summer wasn't a bad return for a team so often pigeon-holed as a one-man show.

That revival has continued into the league with only Sligo and Galway exposing fault lines. The rest were kept at bay, including Laois, who were felled two weeks ago in a role reversal of last year at the same juncture. A date with Tyrone on Sunday in Portlaoise brings events up to the present.

Beating Laois was highly significant as it continued the forward progress.

"There was definitely a question mark over the team. Had we lost that game we would have been labelled chokers by getting within striking distance of the semi-finals and not having made it again," says Forde.

Forde is still the star turn but others share the load - like Westmeath last year when the easing of reliance on Dessie Dolan reaped huge rewards.

"They have come up trumps big time with scores," says Forde of his team-mates. "John Hudson, I think, has scored seven goals in the seven games and Diarmuid Kinsella has scored something like 1-15 from the middle of the field so when you are getting performances like that it takes the pressure off you.

"I moved out the field against Laois to centre forward and spent a good bit of time back in our own defence and we still had a huge threat up front. Whether I'm inside or not there at all, I still have total confidence in the rest of the lads."

Pitting their wits against Tyrone brings it up another notch with many believing it too great a task. Even in defeat to Kerry, Tyrone gained the moral victory as Mark Harte's late free ensured the All-Ireland and league champions had to make do with challenges matches until the championship.

Such are the riches at Mickey Harte's disposal, whatever he unleashes can inflict heavy beatings. For starters, expect Ryan McMenamin to get up close and personal with Forde. It doesn't seem to faze the Kilanerin man who now considers Wexford as genuine contenders for the provincial title. Beating Laois proved they have the mettle but it's the demolition of non-Leinster counties like Armagh, Limerick and Down that has brought consistency.

"Tyrone are probably the in-form team in the country at the moment. Our priority is still Carlow on June 5th but we will certainly be ready for Tyrone. Pat Roe said he would have something in mind for that game. They will certainly be favourites but if we perform to the best of our ability we're a match for anybody."

One last question and a fairly minor one at that: What's the secret to success Mattie? The answers is success breeds success, something Sunday's opposition have been tapping into for a lot longer. "We are getting players to play for Wexford who normally wouldn't play when things were going bad and we were in Division Two. From a poor Division Two team now we are holding our own in Division One."

Times have changed.