National Football League Interview: Wexford manager Pat Roe: The great start to the season by promoted teams in Division One continued at the weekend with Wexford recording their first win in the top flight.

Manager Pat Roe, his nerves wired by the close finish, is pleased that his team got off the mark (0-10 to 1-5) against a prestige outfit like Meath.

"We're happy to get the win but it was too close for comfort. We did enough to get something out of Crossmaglen (Armagh beat them by 1-6 to 0-8). Yesterday was a bit the same.

"We had eight or nine wides in good scoring positions. If we'd got them we'd have made the Meath goal irrelevant. But we've now played two of the stronger teams and it's good to get a win under our belts."

Having started his inter-county management career with Carlow, Roe - a former Laois footballer - is aware of the glass ceiling that has traditionally confined counties like Wexford.

Was he concerned when taking over that the county might freeze at the top level or prove uncompetitive and leave him managing decline?

"Previous to getting involved I might have been concerned but the players have worked very, very hard and done a lot of ball work to get the skills up to this level. And I didn't see us being uncompetitive going up to Armagh. And I'm not going to send a team out telling them not to lose too heavily."

It's not unusual for promoted teams to put in far more effort than their opponents in the early stages of the league. Roe is aware of this and the advantages it can confer on emerging counties.

"I think there's an element of that. Ourselves, Longford and Limerick would have been conscious of making sure that we don't go straight back down. That intensity and desire can unsettle established teams, particularly at this time of the year when a lot of them are in heavy training."

One of Roe's previous acquaintances with Wexford at management level was when Carlow denied their neighbours promotion on the last day of the regulation NFL season two years ago. It was all the more creditworthy that in the exact same fixture 12 months later, Wexford reversed that result.

Roe says that the county's hard-won status was among the reasons behind his taking the position. "The fact that they were a Division One team was an attraction and the fact that they'd been knocking on the door for a couple of years. They were a team trying to make progress.

"I only learned since taking over that there are more football clubs than hurling clubs in the county although football has played second fiddle over the years."

Wexford have a long-standing football tradition that includes a record-making four All-Irelands in a row back in the early years of the last century. For now it's a matter of progressing slowly. Roe knows the pitfalls.

"If we lose next two or three games we're going to be back in the basement. But I'm not going to set limits on the team's ambition."