On Valentine's Day, few Gateshead fans would have been feeling their love for their team after another miserable afternoon.
The home defeat to Brackley was a 16th successive loss in all competitions stretching back to 1 November, and a 13th in the league.
Bottom of the National League, they were toast. Finished. Relegation certainties. Regional football beckoned.
They were 11 points adrift - albeit with three games in hand - but were on a winless league run stretching back to 30 September.
Anyone predicting the bottom four at the end of the season would have written Gateshead down in permanent marker pen.
Now as the National League's regular season comes to an end on Saturday, the Tyneside club's fate is already known.
Why? Because they pulled off one of the greatest ever relegation escapes, safety assured with two games to spare.
"It's an incredible achievement," manager Rob Elliot told BBC Sport.
"It probably redefines what is possible if you have that belief and mentality and that's what the group did."
The central figure to this story is manager Elliot. The 39-year-old returned to the club in January for a second spell trying to recapture the magic of the first.
Under Ellliot, Gateshead had finished sixth in the National League in 2024, only denied a play-off spot because the club had failed to meet the entry criteria for joining the English Football League.
But they shrugged off that disappointment to beat Solihull Moors on penalties to win the FA Trophy at Wembley a fortnight later.
He had Heed fifth again the following season when League One Crawley Town made him their new boss, but for both Elliot and Gateshead, the ensuing period was not a success.
The former Newcastle United and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper lasted only five months with Crawley, while his old club had tumbled from fifth all the way to the bottom when he was reappointed.
"There were still some really good people at the club, but there had been a lot of changes for different reasons, upstairs and behind the scenes," said Elliot.
"I felt the club had lost its identity and culture in terms of what it actually is."
The return did not get off to the best of starts, either.
Five straight defeats added to the malaise that had developed at the International Stadium, although behind-the-scenes Elliot was working hard to change the mentality, while remaining consistent in his messaging and his principles to a squad, which had been bolstered by new additions.
But something needed to change and quickly. It came in the same few days in February as Gateshead, from nowhere, pulled off successive away wins at Halifax Town and Truro City.
Rather than more misery on coach journeys back up the A1, the mood had changed, particularly on the mammoth 457-mile trip back from Cornwall.