TURN your clocks back to late October, when Weymouth had only just taken their first Vanarama National League South win of the season.
It came at the 12th attempt courtesy of an 88th-minute winner from Cam Murray as Weymouth beat Slough Town 3-2 away.
In the previous 11 games, Weymouth had amassed just two points as the wreckage from a tumultuous summer off the pitch spilled onto the pitch.
The resulting uncertainty over the budget, slow and poor recruitment plus a disjointed pre-season cost David Oldfield his job as manager after eight league games of the new season.
READ MORE: Avoiding relegation with Weymouth is Bobby Wilkinson's 'number one' moment
Weymouth’s directors had loitered under shelter at Bath City’s Twerton Park on a rainy September night to deliver Oldfield the bad news after a 2-1 defeat.
However, they had a successor in mind and Bobby Wilkinson was the man they turned to.
Fresh with a growing reputation after a title with Bracknell, promotions with Hungerford and an FA Trophy semi-final with Wealdstone, Wilkinson knew how to win games.
He might not have realised just how difficult a task he faced at Weymouth, though.
Wilkinson made much of his career win percentage as a manager but his stats took an instant beating as he lost his first three league games.
However, he took Weymouth on a memorable FA Cup run, defeating Winchester on his first outing as boss, before sinking Welling 3-0 for the Terras' first home win of the campaign.
And who could forget Ahkeem Rose’s 91st-minute winner to knock out Havant, previously unbeaten, and reach the FA Cup main draw for the first time in 15 years?
Wilkinson was beginning to make things happen for Weymouth and, in the very next game, got the Terras’ first league win against Slough.
Then came Weymouth’s first league win at home, a 1-0 victory over Braintree, after a battering display against AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup.
Weymouth were desperately unlucky not to win but missed chances, a theme that would tarnish their cup run and league efforts, saw them held to a 1-1 draw.
In the replay, Weymouth dominated the first half. Xander McBurnie hit the bar and Tom Blair missed an open goal.
League Two side The Dons would eventually punish Weymouth with a 3-1 victory but the performance over the two games illustrated the quality within the Terras to escape relegation.
Mixed form and a catalogue of injuries threatened to derail those ambitions, though.
A purple patch before Christmas, including a 5-0 hammering of Tonbridge away, was followed by five straight league losses into January.
Weymouth’s next phase of fixtures included numerous games against sides in or around the relegation zone.
While they took wins over Hampton and Dulwich, they inexplicably threw away leads before slipping to late defeats against Hemel and Concord.
They rebounded with a 5-0 thrashing of Concord, an instrumental result for their goal difference, and a 3-1 success over second-placed Dartford.
But the shadows of the drop zone began to hover over Weymouth in ‘Mega March’ as two damaging losses to Chippenham, an horrific 5-2 home defeat by Hungerford and a 1-0 loss at Cheshunt showed just how much trouble they were in.
Through all this, they had to pick themselves up in a make-or-break April.
Arguably the most crucial result of their season came at Havant, when Keelan O’Connell’s 91st-minute equaliser secured them a 2-2 draw after twice going a goal down.
With Weymouth eventually staying up on goal difference, the two 5-0 wins and the Havant point come under the microscope as three of the season-defining results.
Further jeopardy came when Weymouth lost 2-1 at Hampton having been 1-0 up and coming into the game after a late 1-0 win over Bath.
They trailed Dulwich in the final safe position of 20th by seven points with three matches to play.
It seemed unthinkable to escape the drop. Wilkinson was dejected, the fans resigned to their fate.
And yet, two huge victories against Slough and Taunton, coupled with results around them falling kindly, gave them hope on the final day.
Weymouth still needed to beat Dover and they did so comfortably to spark jubilant scenes of celebration and looks of disbelief among the players and staff.
They had just pulled off one of the greatest non-League escapes, and the rewards are huge.
Lucrative home league games are on the horizon against the might of Yeovil and Torquay, plus shorter journeys to the likes of Taunton, Bath, Weston and Plymouth-based Truro.
They’ll be entered into the second qualifying round of the FA Cup instead of the first, and the FA Trophy second round, bypassing the first.
Extra money and fewer games is a handsome return but the biggest prize is remaining in the National League South and a chance to see what Wilkinson can achieve with a blank canvas in 2023/24.
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