"You always watch the draw every year hoping for a really big tie and somehow it doesn't quite work out, but this year we need it and we've got it," says Exeter City's general manager Clive Harrison.

If there is one job in football few would relish right now, it is Harrison's.

He stepped into the breach earlier this season, with the fan-owned club facing a fight for survival.

The Grecians have needed about £600,000 in emergency funding from owners the Exeter City Supporters' Trust just to stay afloat after overspending last season, along with the early payment of a sell-on fee from their former striker Jay Stansfield's move from Fulham to Birmingham City.

Meanwhile, a fire at the club's St James Park ground last month meant the Grecians had to crowdfund £100,000 to fix the damage in order to get last week's 4-0 FA Cup second-round win over Wycombe Wanderers played.

"After the fire it felt like another bump in the road and we were really up against it. The win on Saturday and this draw really gives everybody that boost that we need at the moment," said Harrison.

"I think it's important that we've been through this difficult period. Supporters have rallied around the club and our sponsors have rallied around the club.

"This is really no more than they deserve. We have a month of excitement leading up to this game, then the game itself, and everybody deserves this, I think."

The gap between the two clubs could not be more stark.

The amount of money Manchester City's star striker Erling Haaland reportedly earns in a fortnight is less than the amount that has been causing an existential threat to the League One club's future.

One is owned by an oil-rich state where money is no object, while the other was saved from bankruptcy by a few thousand fans from a town in Devon just over two decades ago.

"It's two clubs with totally different ownership models and it'll be really interesting to see the difference in that," said Exeter manager Gary Caldwell.

"I think we have to sell our story, because I think it's unique.

"We have an incredible football club that 20 years ago we nearly lost, and the supporters were the group that rallied round to keep it going and have fought hard to keep it going and build it up back through the leagues over the years.

"Now we're at a point again where we need some support and to find new ways to be a club that can finance itself at League One level, and obviously days like this are a huge help in adding some much-needed finances at this time."

Twenty-one years ago, Exeter were facing a similar plight, having been taken over by their fans with millions of pounds of debt and a club in what is now the National League.

Back in January 2005, they got a 0-0 draw at Manchester United - Ronaldo, Rooney, Scholes et al - were forced to trek to Exeter for a replay that they won 2-0.

The gate receipts from Old Trafford, coupled with television money from the replay and a sold-out St James Park, helped put a massive dent in the club's debts of almost £5m and set them on the way to becoming the League One side they are today.

There will be no replay this time around, but the impact January's game at the Etihad Stadium could make is likely to be similar to that in 2005.

"It's quite amazing how it's worked out, to be honest. They say these things go in cycles and perhaps this is a 21-year cycle," said Harrison.

"We've done some quick workings out, and of course we don't know what the gate price will be yet, we have no idea what the attendance will be and we don't know if it's on TV as well.

"But I'd assume something maybe around £250,000 upwards, but that's a very early guess I think.

"It's very important. We won on Saturday and when you take the second-round prize money and the third-round losing money into account, which is what we could guarantee, that was worth about £100,000 to us.

"So on top of that, this is really going to give us a boost getting through this season and planning for next season."

Of course the odds will be stacked against Exeter.

While they have some international experience in veteran Northern Ireland striker Josh Magennis and Finland winger Ilmari Niskanen, their squad is incomparable to the star-studded team City boss Pep Guardiola could pick.

But Caldwell does know how to get one over Manchester City in the FA Cup, having done it twice as a player at Wigan, including in the 2013 final.

"It's a team that I know how to beat in the FA Cup because we managed to do that back in 2013 with Wigan in the final, and actually beat them the following year as well, so who knows, maybe it can strike again," he said.

"They're an incredible team. I've seen them over the years win Premier Leagues and European Cups, FA Cups - just an incredible football team and an incredible club that has really come to prominence in recent years.

"So it will be a huge task when it comes around."

"I'm excited to go up against one of the best teams in the world," said long-serving captain Pierce Sweeney.

From play-off final defeats at Wembley, to promotions from League Two and being edged out of last season's FA Cup on penalties by top-flight Nottingham Forest, the 31-year-old Irishman has seen it all in his 10 seasons at St James Park.

"It's a little bit surreal," he says of the draw.

"Hopefully we get it on TV, we get it on primetime TV and hopefully we can earn some good money and hopefully we can put a cup performance in against one of the best sides in the last 10 years."

From marking the best in the third tier, the no-nonsense defender will have to possibly prepare to mark the best in the world come next month.

But it is something he feels he, along with his teammates and the club's fans, must relish.

"I don't think my legs will be feeling good after half an hour in that game and I don't think my body will be feeling good," he joked.

"But I'm really excited for the occasion and for the football club to get the exposure, to get the financial boost and for us to pull out Man City is unbelievable.

"It's going to be a one-in-a-lifetime experience, a once-in-a-lifetime game.

"I've got friends and family who messaged me straightaway looking to book flights and book hotels in Manchester, so I reckon there could be a couple of thousand coming up from Exeter and probably a thousand of friends and family from players travelling."