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Exeter City face Manchester City in the FA Cup on Saturday, 21 years after a tie against Manchester United that proved defining in the club's history.
Manchester isn't exactly an easy place to get to from Exeter. It's nearly 250 miles and will take the best part of five hours by car for the thousands of fans making their way from Devon to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Those trekking up the M5 might consider the good fortune that Manchester has offered them. Twenty-one years ago to the week, they made the same journey to Old Trafford for a game that secured their future as a fan-owned club. Now they head to Manchester City with the financial realities of the modern game placing them at risk once again.
Not so long ago, there were fears that the Grecians might not even last the season. Those have eased, and a payday from this weekend's FA Cup third round tie will be a welcome boost, although it won't quite be the game-changer it was in January 2005.
Back then, Exeter were in the Conference and were in the infancy of becoming English football's first fan-owned club. They were struggling to reset before drawing United out of the hat. A goalless draw at Old Trafford earned them a replay back at St James' Park and a couple of paydays that laid the foundations for the success that followed.
"The club had no money, had big debts, and it was the step up that was needed to get the show back on the road," said Peter Ferlie, chair of Exeter City Supporters' Trust. "Without that replay, who knows where we'd be?
"Everybody rallied together, and the rest is history. At St James' Park we were rammed in like sardines in a tin can. Great atmosphere, great to see the stars of United, great to see Scott Hardy nutmegging Ronaldo, and all of that.
"Every single penny counted. We needed as much in the till as we could to make sure that we could go forward and develop and ensure that we had a professional football club for the 2000s. It was that desperate to make sure that we could get every single penny in, which we did."
Matt Phillips, a trust director, was 13 at the time, but even then, he knew the importance of the game and what it meant both on and off the pitch. Sir Alex Ferguson rang the changes for the first time, but had to unleash Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the replay 2-0.
"The replay was really important, but there's also a folklore around Exeter that Man United were very generous in that tie and actually gave us all of the gate receipts of the first game, knowing the financial situation that we were in," said Phillips.
"It kind of shows how the football community can come together in those sorts of moments to support clubs across the pyramids."
The money made from that tie allowed the trust to plan for the future. They are now a League One club and look in a good place for a fourth successive mid-table finish in the third tier.
However, the challenges have evolved significantly over the last two decades. This season, the club have made two rounds of redundancies and required £600,000 in loans from the trust to stabilise finances. A fire at St James' Park in November caused around £100,000 of damage.
Exeter made a success of sticking with and investing in their academy, with Ollie Watkins, Matt Grimes and Ethan Ampadu all success stories. However, the goalposts are being moved there as well.
The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) has reduced the fees clubs receive for their top young players. Without it, Ferlie believes Exeter would have pocketed an extra £1.5million from the sale of Ampadu to Chelsea, and he is at a loss to understand why clubs like that can drop £30million on a signing from abroad that may or may not work out, but can't put their hands in their pocket to support clubs in their own pyramid.
"I think in League One, we are aware that we have the lowest budget. I think the second lowest is AFC Wimbledon, who are also fan-owned," said Phillips. "And if you look at what's happening with them as well, I think they're also looking for investment. It's clearly a really challenging environment and clubs across the pyramid are becoming more investable by overseas entities.
"I think Wycombe Wanderers, a decade ago, we would have seen as very similar to ourselves, are now owned by a multi-millionaire. The landscape is incredibly tough and we're seeing that from the wage budgets."
Exeter believe their budget would be mid-table in League Two and a similar position in the National League, with the spread of ambition and overseas investment in English football even reaching non-league levels.
Ferlie, the chair of the trust, said wage inflation in League One last season was an eye-watering 80%, with Exeter's wage budget only rising by 40%. Cash flow is so tight that it is managed on a daily basis, but the situation is "looking a lot brighter than it was six months ago".
Exeter expect to make between £250,000 and £400,000 from the tie, with ticket prices reduced, although that decision does at least ensure a larger crowd. Each club receives 45% of the gate receipts from the game, with the remaining 10% allocated to the Football Association.
"We were thinking we’re going to make X, but now we’re going to make Y because of the ticket prices," said Ferlie. "We’re still making money, but not enough for us. We were trying to persuade Man City to hand a bit more money because it makes a big difference to us.
"Gary [Caldwell, the club's manager] was with us because we had a trustee board meeting that night. He had a fantastic smile on his face and his first words were ‘it's winnable because I've beaten Man City in the FA Cup before’ [with Wigan]."
The trust believes they would have made more money in the tie had it been at Exeter, despite the sizeable difference in stadium size. It would have been selected for live TV coverage, for starters, while the hosting clubs also get to keep money made from the sale of hospitality packages, with those tickets only considered sold at the maximum general admission price when it comes to the split between clubs. The FA's decision to kill off replays has also had an impact on the ability of lower-league clubs to generate revenue from the FA Cup.
"I think it's good in terms of highlighting the two different types of ownership," said Ferlie. "It really is David versus Goliath, and the contrast of the two models, and to show people that there are still clubs like us out there, battling away, we're doing alright in League One at the moment, considering our wage budget, punching above our weight, so these things are possible."
The question is how much longer fan-owned clubs can survive in the EFL. When clubs across the pyramid are being snapped up by American investors, can a club like Exeter continue to be owned by fans and play at a competitive level?
"I’m the glass-half-full guy, so I see a future for fan-owned clubs," said Ferlie. "It's not easy and it won't be easy, but there has to be a space in our league structure for fan-owned clubs. There just has to be.
"Because every billionaire owner, millionaire owner, will get bored eventually with paying money into a football club and not getting much back in return. The bubble has to burst sometime."
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