For the first time since the start of the 2010-11 season, Torquay United now find themselves at the summit of a league after they moved to the top of Vanarama National League South with a win over Dartford.
Second half goals from Ruairi Keating and Jamie Reid proved to be enough to secure a 2-0 victory, which moves the Gulls onto 36 points - two points ahead of second placed Welling United, who travel to Plainmoor this weekend.
The last time that the Gulls were top of any division was in the early 2010-11 campaign under the managerial reign of Paul Buckle. After a run of four wins from their opening six games, United were led League Two and helped Buckle to win the manager of the month award for August 2010 in the process.
Fast forward to 2018 and current Gulls manager Gary Johnson, who scooped the National League South monthly award for October 2018, now has a different challenge ahead of him.
Now that the Gulls have reached the division's summit, the challenge now is to stay there. The hunter has now become the hunted.
Under Johnson they have gone from 14th to 1st and have also scored 42 goals since he replaced Gary Owers on September 13th. For no player is this transformation more evident than with leading scorer Jamie Reid who has found the back of the net 13 times in the league, as well as a further two in the FA Cup and another one in the FA Trophy, this season after only finding the target once under Owers.
"We're there to be shot at now - do you fight harder as the champion or the challenger?" said Johnson.
"We've got to make sure we don't let anybody knock us off our perch if we can help it.
"The boys are enjoying winning and winning does become a habit and we've got to keep it as a habit."
It's a habit that two of Johnson's previous clubs Yeovil Town and Cheltenham Town also possessed. He won the Conference and League Two title with the Glovers in the 2002-03 and 2004-05 seasons respectively and later lifted the National League title in the 2015-16 campaign with the Robins. In addition to this, he also led Bristol City and Yeovil to promotion from League One.
After facing Welling on Saturday, the Gulls then face Boreham Wood in the FA Trophy before travelling to Hampton and Richmond ahead of an Christmas that includes playing Truro City home and away, as part of their groundshare arrangement, and hosting Gloucester City - now managed by former Torquay defender Chris Todd.
