Exactly six years ago today Saints legend Rickie Lambert started for Bristol Rovers as they drew 2-2 with Leeds United.

That League One match saw a season’s best crowd of 10,293 fill the Memorial Stadium.

Fast-forward 2,190 days and Eastleigh – back then playing in front of around 500 fans in the Conference South – will be travelling to the same ground to play in front of the biggest crowd in their history.

At the same time the Gas took a point from Leeds on March 7 2009, the Spitfires lost a crucial promotion-chasing match 2-1 at Hampton & Richmond in the Blue Square South.

The following week they welcomed 502 people to the Silverlake Stadium for a 1-0 victory over Weston-super-Mare.

Stranger things have happened, but it is still astonishing that these two will meet in the Vanrama Conference with a level playing field.

While Rovers were relegated to this level for the first time in 94 years at the end of last term, the Spitfires had just reached it for the first time.

After a 12-year journey up the non-league pyramid from the Wessex League, Richard Hill’s side were crowned champions of the Skrill South.

Now they meet with neither side wanting to hang around too long in the division.

The Football League is the aim.

Bristol want to bounce straight back from a relegation that devastated their supporters.

Darrell Clarke’s side are recovering well in a notoriously tough division to climb back out of, and are tussling with Barnet for top spot.

Not since 2004/05, when Carlisle United were promoted via the play-offs, has a relegated team managed to regain promotion in the first season.

It took Luton Town five seasons to return, and many clubs, including Macclesfield, Lincoln, Grimsby, Chester and Aldershot, have been relegated in the past five seasons from League Two and failed to return.

Rovers could buck that trend considering their current unbeaten run stretches back to October, something which the confident Spitfires will be eager to end.

If play-off chasing Eastleigh were to go up, it would be the first time in history that a newly promoted club would go from Conference South through to the Football League in successive promotions.

But, such is the Spitfires’ recent appetite for progression, it would remarkable yet not surprising if they were to do it.

The latest tick on a lengthy list of recent historical landmarks saw the Spitfires host a record-breaking crowd of 4,126 in their 4-0 win over Macclesfield Town last weekend.

And they’re about to cross-off another one when they are watched by what is expected to be their biggest ever crowd.

Rovers have averaged crowds of 6,105 this term, meaning they are by far and away the best supported club in the division. Their lowest attendance this term was 4,861.

The fact that this match is actually taking place, not in a one-off cup match, but in the same league is testament to the rise of Eastleigh.