Exeter dream of greatest upset as Ferguson sends in big guns

This week had long been pencilled in at Manchester United as one for long-distance travel. However, instead of flying to Johannesburg to take part in an exhibition match in South Africa, United's players yesterday boarded another very different aircraft to take them to Devon.

This week had long been pencilled in at Manchester United as one for long-distance travel. However, instead of flying to Johannesburg to take part in an exhibition match in South Africa, United's players yesterday boarded another very different aircraft to take them to Devon.

The two are not connected: Sir Alex Ferguson had decided that a mid-season friendly on another continent was something United could do without well before the embarrassing goalless draw against Exeter at Old Trafford that Roy Keane confessed he would have been unhappy paying money to watch.

It is 21 years, further down the English Riviera at Bournemouth, since Manchester United last lost an FA Cup tie to lower-division opposition, although should they go down in tonight's replay, it would eclipse any previous upset in the history of the competition. Mickey Thomas's winner for Wrexham against Arsenal in 1992, Hereford's defeat of Newcastle 20 years before and Yeovil's overturning of Sunderland, then the wealthiest club in Britain, in 1949, would seem in comparison merely mildly surprising.

The rule of thumb is that David only gets one shot at Goliath. Although Hereford won theirs, replays almost invariably go to form and Exeter's unpaid director of football, Steve Perryman, imagined that if his side were not to be paid back in full for the pain they had inflicted on United they had to make the most of the opening 10 minutes.

"Perhaps United will be a little bit fearful," he said. "Whenever I was playing in these kind of matches for Spurs, I always said to myself that the first 10 minutes were critical. You are playing on an unfamiliar ground in unfamiliar conditions and you are desperately trying to get back some normality.

"You could have rain, wind and unfamiliar conditions. We have to make sure that we are right and that we walk tall, right from the start. It will be a test for us but then it was a test for us when we played at Manchester United in front of 67,000."

Upsets tend to be influenced by the elements. Hereford produced something that resembled a ploughed field of mud as a pitch, while in Yeovil Len Shackleton's dribbling disappeared into the Somerset fog. Tonight at St James Park, Manchester United are likely to face high winds and a tight, uneven surface, which Ferguson stated would be one of two factors that might undermine his club. The other, he remarked, was "not treating it as a proper Cup tie".

There is no chance of Ferguson underestimating Exeter a second time. The youngsters, who lamentably failed to break down the Conference side during an hour and a half of sometimes excruciating football, will be discarded in favour of more proven talent. Of United's senior squad only Keane, Rio Ferdinand and Gabriel Heinze did not board the plane at Manchester Airport. Even Ryan Giggs, making his way back from a hamstring injury, was there.

"We will be ready. There is no doubt about that," said Ferguson who described United's performance against Exeter as the worst cup display in his 18 years at Old Trafford. His youngsters, the likes of Chris Eagles, Kieran Richardson and Liam Miller, have been given three grand stages on which to show their talents: the Carling Cup encounter with Arsenal, the Champions' League fixture with Fenerbahce and what must have appeared a training exercise against Exeter. Only the first has seen them take opportunities that come rarely at United.

Ferguson pointed out they had performed well in the Carling Cup at Crewe and against Crystal Palace. However, there has been nothing like the kind of display a different generation of fledglings delivered at the other St James' Park a decade ago when pushing Kevin Keegan's full Newcastle side to the limit in a League Cup tie. Ferguson added with the merest hint of menace that "the next time they get their chance they will understand what it is to be a Manchester United player".

Eleven days ago, Exeter's manager, Alex Inglethorpe, fielded three 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old all, of whom performed rather better than Ferguson's young talent.

Those who know Ferguson well say that at heart there lurks a romantic. When losing a Champions' League qualifier to a little known Hungarian team in Budapest, he confessed there was a part of him - a small part of him, admittedly - that was pleased. He said much the same about Exeter.

"Their manager handled it terrifically," he said. "He comported himself for a young man with great expertise. After the game there were no hand-jives, no jumping up and down, he was totally calm." Perhaps Ferguson was thinking of Jose Mourinho charging up and down the touchline at Old Trafford after Porto had knocked Manchester United out of the European Cup in March.

"There is no doubt everyone will want to see us knocked out," Ferguson said. "Whenever I watch a game of football, I always take the underdog."

He will not tonight. But then Exeter City are no ordinary underdogs but a chihuahua confronted by a bleeding wolf.