Torquay United's reward for dispatching Basingstoke Town on penalties in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy is a first round tie away to last season's beaten National League play-off finalists Boreham Wood.
It is a meeting that manager Gary Johnson believes gives him an opportunity to measure the progress that the Gulls have made since he took charge, and to assess the standards they will need to reach in the future.
Since winning promotion from National League South in 2015, the Wood have made steady progress under the guidance of their highly promising young manager Luke Garrard and were beaten 2-1 by Tranmere Rovers at Wembley May in the National League play-off final in May 2018.
This season the Wood are currently eight points off the play-off zone in 10th place and they are one of the strongest sides that United could have been paired with in the regionalised first round draw of the Trophy.
"As I have said previously, it will be nice to see where we are against a decent Conference side," said Johnson. "I’ve had a couple of battles with them over the years and they’ve got a good manager and a good team. It will definitely test us, but they are the tests we want for future reference.”
Johnson, who led Yeovil Town to FA Trophy glory in 2002 when the Glovers defeated Stevenage 2-0 at Villa Park, has faced the Wood and Garrard twice during his reign as Cheltenham Town - both of which came in the 2015-16 season.
After drawing 0-0 at Wood's Meadow Park home, the Robins triumphed 4-1 at Whaddon Road with Dan Holman and Danny Wright each bagging a brace.
However, the Gulls' record against the Wood in recent years has not been as successful. Garrard's men have won five from a possible six league meetings between 2015 and 2018 - most notably their 4-2 win at Plainmoor last season, which proved to be Kevin Nicholson's final match as Gulls manager before his dismissal.
United's solitary victory over the Wood came in February 2016 when they came away from Meadow Park with a 1-0 win, courtesy of a Nathan Blissett effort, which proved to be the catalyst for their 'Great Escape' of the 2015-16 season under Nicholson.
If the Gulls do come away from Meadow Park with a positive result, it will certainly send a message out that they are a club on the up under Johnson.
