Former All Star Mattie Forde shone at Wexford Park as his sublime first half goal helped the home side beat Longford.
Longford goalkeeper Damien Sheridan was left stunned when his clearance kick went straight to Forde whose chipped shot from 40 metres out sailed over the back-pedalling Sheridan and into the net.
Adrian Flynn also goaled as Wexford turned around with a 2-05 to 0-03 lead.
Paul Barden netted a penalty for Longford but he missed three late, gilt-edged goal chances.
Eric Bradley had notched Wexford's third goal to give them a degree of comfort.
Luke Dempsey's Longford side, who are gearing up for next Friday's O'Byrne Cup final against Dublin, hit the front early on when Francis McGee landed a brace of frees.
But the visitors struggled throughout to find points from play and had to rely on place-kicks for the majority of their scores.
Wexford, under new manager Jason Ryan, opted to pump high balls in towards Forde and that tactic began to pay dividends midway through the first half.
Ben Brosnan did well to point on the turn for Wexford's opening score and their first goal soon followed.
From a long ball in towards the square, Brosnan flicked the ball towards Sheridan's goal, the Longford number one parried the effort but Flynn was on hand to side-foot home on the rebound.
Although Wexford clocked up the wides, they could always rely on Forde for some smashing scores.
His first point arrived when he thumped over from 35 metres out to nose his side into a 1-02 to 0-02 lead.
Three more points followed from the Kilanerin ace before he picked off what will certainly be one of the goals of the inter-county season.
Longford responded with a point, but again it was from a placed ball, and Dempsey obviously gave his attack a talking-to at the break.
The visitors looked fired-up for the resumption and they managed to reduce the gap to 2-07 to 1-05 with McGee landing another free and Barden banging home his penalty after a jersey pull on Declan Farrell, with the latter also tagging on a point.
But their efforts were in vain as Forde, who finished with a handsome personal haul of 1-06, drove Wexford to a morale-boosting win.
