After coming up against two of his former clubs and one of his old managers this season, next up for Kevin Nicholson will be a contest with one of his ex team-mates when Torquay United face Chris Todd's Eastleigh on Easter Monday.
So far in his short managerial career, Nicholson has faced the club he left Torquay to join - Forest Green Rovers; the side he signed for after leaving the Gulls - Kidderminster Harriers - and an FC Halifax Town team managed by his former Forest Green manager Jim Harvey and now he is set to do battle with Todd for the first time.
The duo served alongside each other as players at Plainmoor for three years between 2007 and 2010, and they were both part of the United side that won promotion back to the Football League in 2009 - when they beat Cambridge United in the Conference Play-off final.
It was a highly memorable three years for Todd especially, as he fought his way back to appear for the Gulls at Wembley against Cambridge after being diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia - cancer of the blood in lay man's terms - early on in the 2008-09 campaign.
However, after a brief loan spell with Salisbury City, he was back in time for the end of season run-in as United ensured that their exile outside the Football League would only last for two years.
To achieve this, he showed a strength of character that has stood him in good stead for his managerial career with the Spitfires, who he took charge of after a brief spell as assistant manager to his predecessor Richard Hill.
Meanwhile, Nicholson's Gulls of 2016 need to display a gutsy resolve of their own as they aim to bounce back from a 5-0 defeat away at Dover Athletic, in which right-back Durrell Berry was stretched off with a broken leg.
One positive for United so far this weekend is the return of Luke Young, following a cruciate ligament injury that has kept him out for the entire season so far, when he came on as a 63rd minute substitute. He is set to play some part in the proceedings on Easter Monday.
