Steve Jupp, BA11's Club Historian, looks ahead to a top-of-the-table encounter with the Magpies.
The big Badgers Hill occasions just keep coming, titanic Trophy tussle, local derby and on Saturday, it's the turn of table toppers Wimborne Town.
Tuesday's hard-earned 3-1 success over Westbury took The Robins to within a point of The Magpies, teeing up nicely what will be, hopefully, one of those classic second versus first encounters.
Wimborne have suffered one or two postponements lately causing them to be inactive since the end of November, so will they be refreshed or ring rusty?
The two sides share some similarities this season...both have impressive home records with just two points dropped (both in their opening home fixture) and both had a cup visit from Torquay in front of a bumper crowd, against whom both lost by a three-goal margin.
Away from home, Wimborne won on each of their first four trips of the campaign but, not wishing to tempt fate, have not recorded a victory on the road since early September.
Last season, their first in Division One South since suffering relegation in 2022, they finished fifth and made the play-offs with the remarkable record of conceding more than they scored but went down 2-1 at Sholing in the semi final.
The Robins managed to secure an impressive double, winning 3-0 here at The Hill before triumphing 4-1 a month later on a Tuesday night at New Cuthbury, a result which ended a depressing and ultimately costly run of nine league away games without a win.
Three home matches in a week is hard on the pocket of most supporters, particularly in December, but this is the last Badgers Hill fixture before Christmas and could have a huge bearing on who finishes where at the business end of the table.
Some potential Christmas gifts for you and some key games at home this month still to come including Saturday's! Make sure to secure your entry as soon as possible!
I'm less worried about his one than I am about the away fixture that comes after - at Cribbs, who look a very powerful side and are now challenging for the title as well. This is going to be our hardest away game of the season IMHO.
It's always interesting watching the video of a game ( post Westbury) - they made two real howlers for two of our goals but we also conceded from a simple cross into our six yard box - yet again - a recurring theme unfortunately!
On the positive side, for our third goal, Tealey was lucky he wasn't done for speeding - going down the flank like that - in a gazellesque like…