Following 102 years of trying, Clongeen finally won their first Wexford senior football championship title in 2007 and manager of the side, Ger Foxe spoke to Hogan Stand about what the success meant to the rural club. Clongeen St Aidan's GAA club was established in 1905 and although the club has been one of the top senior sides I the county for the past two decades, success was hard to come by until this year's historic win over a Starlights side that had won the championship on nine previous occasions, the last of which was in 2004. In the early years of the club's existence reams were fielded in the hurling and football championships, then the arrival of Rev. Edmond Wheeler, who was a member of the historic Wexford side that won four consecutive All-Ireland titles from 1915-18 transformed the face of the club. District titles were won in 1928 and '29, while a county final was contested in 1930, but the club lost to Gorey Blues. Following this and the departure of Fr Wheeler, the football team went out if existence for a few years. District titles were once again won in 1938 and '43, but still the elusive county title evaded them. The club had to wait a further 20 years to really start delivering on the county stage. In 1963, a Clongeen/Gusserane amalgamation won the county minor title, while six years later, the first of two under-21 titles were secured by the club. The under-21 success of 1970 was just the tip of an amazing year as Clongeen won the county junior title following a replay win over Buffer's Alley. The club won a junior B title two years later and then another under-21 title was obtained the amalgamation outfit. The club's hurlers won the 1986 junior title and the following year intermediate glory was secured by the footballers, which was to see Clongeen remain their status in the top flight until the present day. "We have not too much success down through the years unfortunately, but the success in this year's senior certainly made up for a lot of heartache in the past," said Ger. "Clongeen have been senior for the past 20 years and we would be well established in the top flight. The club has competed in four semi-finals and has always been there or thereabouts, but this was our first county final and we're hopefully that the hoodoo is well and truly broken for good." At the start of the year Ger was appointed manager, having been a selector the previous year, while he and his selectors Denis Rochford and PJ Whelan spoke with the players about their plans for the coming season and they knew that success could be achieved. "The club has a very good underage structure in place and it is a relatively young side with a good mixture of experienced players like Paddy Colfer, Liam Murtagh and Padraig Curtis in the team." Clongeen had not the best of start to the campaign as the suffered two early defeated to Castletown and Bannow-Ballymitty, but fortunately for them a solitary win over Fethard gave the scoring advantage to sneak in second place. "Wexford club football is very competitive and the championship consists of four groups of four teams with the top two in each going through to the quarterfinals. Luckily for us, we managed to get the right result against Fethard and other results went our way." In the quarterfinal Castletown were put to the sword on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-8 and Clongeen were through to another semi-final, but who would they react to being at the penultimate stage? "We just tried to instil the belief into the players that they were good enough to win the semi final. Kilanerin were favourites, but we knew that we had a very good chance of reaching the final." And so Ger was proved right as a three-point win was recorded and a place in their first ever county final was secured by Clongeen, who would face Starlights in the decider. No-one could have predicted such an outcome, it was a remarkable achievement for the club and, after an evenly-contested first half; they never looked back after Liam Murphy pounced for their second goal 30 seconds after the restart. John Hudson and Colm Byrne exchanged early points before county star Colfer converted a penalty to give Clongeen a lead they would never relinquish. Despite points in reply from the Hudson brothers, John and Willie, Starlights went into the break trailing by 0-5 to 1-3. Within moments of the restart, a fatal mistake by Starlights defender Mark Gahan allowed Murphy in for Clongeen's second goal. A brace of points from wing forward Ambrose Stafford increased the underdogs' lead to 2-6 to 0-6 by the end of the third quarter and the game was already up for the Enniscorthy men when John Hudson blasted a 60th minute penalty over the bar as Clongeen ran out winners by 2-10 to 0-8. "It was just an amazing result and the lads looked so confident throughout, especially when we scored the second goal. The celebrations afterwards were something special as young and old cried their eyes out with delight. Ger revealed that Clongeen have a very small catchment area to choose from and that the majority of the team was made up of local families in the area. "We have the second smallest parish in the county and don't have a huge pool of players to choose from, so to win a county title is a momentous achievement," added Ger, whose own Son Barry was a member of the side. "Coming from such a small area, you get to know all the players really well, but it was important for me and the selectors to keep our distance in that respect." Despite coming from a small catchment area, Clongeen field teams at all grades and the interest in football in the area is immense as not only did they win the senior title this year, but the junior B championship was also annexed. "There are plenty of people willing to put in the work at underage level and that has been the secret of our success really. We have a good minor team coming through hopes are high that the majority of these will be playing senior football very shortly." Clongeen's Leinster championship campaign faltered at the first hurdle as having conceded home advantage to Moorefield, the Wexford champions were forced to travel to Naas. But they were always playing second fiddle to a stronger and more purposeful Moorefield side that eased to a second round clash with Longford's Dromard. The visitors took the lead through Gary O'Brien, but after drawing level in the 11th minute, Moorefield streaked clear to lead by 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time. Clongeen battled hard, with Colm Byrne to the fore for them, but Moorefield won most of the breaks around midfield and four unanswered points put them nine points ahead at the end of the third quarter. Despite two late points from Clongeen, the holders were never seriously threatened. Ger has been employed as foreman with Goff Developments for the past eleven years. The company are currently working on a development in Bridgetown, Co Wexford where 120 houses are been constructed. Goff Developments are one of the leading construction firms in the south east and have been operating for the past 15 years, employing 50 full time staff. Tweet

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