The Times looks back to the last Cup tie thirty six years ago.
'United, the European Cup holders, were drawn to play away to Exeter in the third round. "My wife was cooking the lunch when it came on the radio. I couldn’t believe it. The excitement went through the whole city from then until the match itself," Banks said.
United’s form over the Christmas of 1968 had been poor. They lost 2-0 away to Southampton and 3-0 away to Arsenal before travelling to Exeter — by train — on January 4, 1969, for the Cup match. Almost 19,000 fans crammed into St James’ Park and the visiting team were respectful enough to play their full-strength side. "We just said to ourselves that it was 11 against 11 and we might have a good day and them a bad day," Banks said. "We didn’t have a game plan really, just to pick up whoever was nearest to us. With players as good as they had, where do you start?" Banks said.
Exeter began well and took the lead after 15 minutes when Banks headed past Alex Stepney. The ball was in the United net again a few minutes later but was disallowed for handball. John Fitzpatrick equalised seconds before half-time and United added two more after the break through a John Newman own goal and a tap-in by Brian Kidd.
"Matt Busby came into the dressing-room after the game and said, ‘Well played you boys’," Banks said. "We didn’t swap shirts or anything because I don’t think the club had enough money to replace them. All the Exeter lads went to the pub and had a few pints."
Banks plans to travel to Old Trafford with a coach party of former players and club stalwarts but concedes that the result is a foregone conclusion. "We’ve no chance," he said. He isn’t damning the present Exeter team, who have dropped into the Nationwide Conference, but merely accepting that the game has moved on drastically from the days when lower division clubs could give "headaches " to the very top teams. "I’d be happy with losing 3-1 or 4-1, something like that," he said. "It will all depend on what team United put out obviously. I just want us to give a good account of ourselves."
UNITED TEAM FROM THE CUP GAME IN 1968:
A Stepney, A Dunne, F Burns, J Fitzpatrick, S James, N Stiles, G Best, B Kidd, R Charlton, D Law, C Sartori.