A Tottenham team of Hoddle, Ardiles and Archibald were the opponents that stopped Exeter City the last time the Devon club went beyond the third round of the FA Cup. A quarter-final defeat by the eventual winners 44 years ago came after the scalps of Leicester and Newcastle in earlier rounds. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” says Nick Hawker, the chairman of Exeter City Supporters’ Trust – which owns the club – since 2017 and a fan for much longer. “The thrill of it. Going to White Hart Lane was just amazing.”
In the intervening decades Exeter have encountered near-extinction but also enjoyed other noteworthy Cup occasions, with the fourth-round visit on Tuesday of Nottingham Forest, third in the Premier League, the next in line. Nuno Espírito Santo follows Alex Ferguson and Jürgen Klopp in taking teams to St James Park.
