Workers gobble the last morsels of food and a little crowd has gathered around the plasma screen of World Cup highlights. All, though, are oblivious to the sporting hero sitting in the corner.

Forde is one of Ireland's best and most consistent forwards, a box-office star and a true headliner. But the Wexford man remains unnoticed today because his legend is a strange one. There are football fanatics in Cork and Mayo and Tyrone who have yet to experience a live Matty show. To many, he's still the wonder kid, the guy whose name appears at the end of a match report with crazy figures tacked on. 2-10. 0-12. 45. Scores to pick your lotto numbers by.

Come July, his name slides from the national pages, destined to perform only for the local audience. His face remains the private knowledge of his county and the few they brush against in the championship.

Put Cooper, Mulligan, O'Neill or Meehan in a busy building like this one at a time when the season is about to explode and watch the eyes peer their way, watch a trickle of stargazers meander toward them. Not Matty, though.

For the past couple of summers he has placed Wexford's hopes on his shoulders, loaded them like bullets inside a gun barrel, and taken on Leinster. There have been a couple of days later in summer with the qualifier rounds, and occasions like the league final against Armagh, but Wexford still remain a provincial side and Forde has yet to experience the big occasion.

He's trying to change all that and says the county's football stock is at an interesting intersection. Victory today will propel them to a Leinster final for the first time in half a century. Defeat will prove tiresome. Wexford have lost two provincial semifinals in as many years and a hat-trick of losses will be hard to stomach.

Expectation, at least, means something. There were days, not so long ago, when a Leinster football decider for Wexford seemed as possible as reaching the summit of Everest without climbing gear.

"To be honest, " says Forde, "when I started out, if you told anyone you were playing senior football for Wexford they'd nearly laugh at you. If you asked people in Wexford they wouldn't be able to name six fellas on the football team.

We really were going that bad at the time."

He was eased into the county set-up in late 1998 as a teenager . . . with his elder brother, Pat, as the point of reference. At this stage, the team had gone 19 games without a win but Pat was establishing himself as a Wexford stalwart. He was robust and versatile, able to take a point, but had toughness to burn.

These were qualities Wexford could use so the management brought Matty on board expecting more of the same. What they got was something entirely different: a silky forward, a scoring machine with lethal accuracy.

In one of his first senior challenge games, Wexford played a Kildare side with Mick O'Dwyer in charge.

Forde ran riot. Cut the Kildare back six apart.

At the end, O'Dwyer walked up to JJ Barrett, a fellow Kerryman then managing Wexford. "You know JJ, " said O'Dwyer, "if we had transfers in football I'd pay anything for that fellow.

What's his name?"

While Matty was on board Wexford football couldn't linger in darkness for long, yet the first signs of life were beginning to show soon after Barrett took charge.

They strung three league wins together during the winter of '98 and confidence was beginning to rise. With hurling at an apex in Wexford, football pursuits were going against the natural grain of the GAA in the county.

There were squabbles and disagreements between the manager and the board. Barrett saw potential in his players but he believed the blazers didn't share the same opinion.

Little things. The manager found an outside benefactor to provide ten footballs for the squad. He was called to task and told such gifts could only be received if they came through the official channels.

He'd arrange dinner after a league game in a hotel under an assumed group name of 'The Rathgar Historical Society', lest the board get wind that their footballers were getting fed and the hurlers should expect likewise. It wasn't unusual for Barrett to pick up the bill when the plates were cleaned.

It wasn't unusual, either, for an official to prepare sandwiches on the dressing room table while training was going on. They were then dished out at the end of the session. "When I was involved with Kerry 40 odd years ago, " says Barrett, "we wouldn't stand for that sort of carry on. In the 50s and 60s you'd expect a full meal after training and here you were in Wexford, in the modern day, with lads travelling from Dublin to train for the county, and all they get is a cold meat sandwich made in the dressing room."

The players and management worked together, struck up a close bond, and took on all comers. It was love in a cold climate and this was the environment into which Forde stepped.

By the end of 1998 Wexford were pipped for promotion, losing their last two games by a bare point with a couple of controversial refereeing decisions thrown into the mix. But the first chinks of light were beginning to appear.

"Things were beginning to pick up. Getting the first run out for Wexford was the thing, playing beside lads you'd seen playing for Wexford and winning. I even remember going into training the first night and togging out beside these fellas. It was daunting. I was in awe of them."

The others had heard of Forde by then, though. As a 16-year-old he was sprung from the bench for his club, Kilanerin, during their Leinster club championship campaign. In the first round he bagged eight points. The next day, he took a strong St Sylvester's defence for six more.

It wasn't until 2004 that he grabbed the nation's attention in earnest. In six league games he racked up eight goals and 36 points. In the championship, he managed 338 in five games.

"Sometimes things go your way. Like, in 2004 I was captain of the team. I trained as hard that year as I ever did and I was very fit. I'd no injury problems. Last year was a different story. I could barely get a kick and I didn't have a good season."

There were only three outings for Wexford in 2005 with two ending in defeat. They tailed away to Dublin after having had the giants on the ropes and were swallowed up soon after when Monaghan unexpectedly dumped them from the qualifiers. "We let ourselves down that day.

And against Dublin I think a lack of confidence was to blame. We honestly didn't think we had the beating of them. If we have a repeat of last year all over again this time around, we'll be disappointed. It'll be a huge dent to our confidence again. We've gained a nice bit of momentum over the last few years and it's vital that we keep that going."

Last week, with today's Wexford double-header in mind, a charity challenge game between the intercounty hurlers and footballers was arranged for Wexford Park. One half of hurling, the other football.

Forde was well equipped to compete strongly in both halves and three years ago Wexford was filled with talk that he may even take to the small ball.

"There was an awful lot said about that at the time but it was never really a runner. I trained with them [the Wexford hurlers] for a while in 2003 before the Cork replay but I felt if I had went with the hurlers I could end up taking someone's place who had been there all along.

And I've been playing with some of the footballers now for ten years and I'd have felt like I was turning my back on some of those lads. It'll always be football. I'd never have played hurling because I'd have seen it as a better chance to win something. I started playing football from day one to try to have success with Wexford. I just want to try and help get the county back on the map."

It starts here. For the third year running he moves towards Croke Park and a provincial final within touching distance. It's a 50-year gap he's trying to bridge and the least his enduring talents deserve.