It is 10 years since Exeter caused one of the biggest stirs in FA Cup third-round history by holding Manchester United to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford and the memory of that awkward afternoon is still raw for Phil Neville. He was one of a handful of senior players who started for United and has not forgotten what a scrap it was against non-league opponents who were determined to give everything against the best team they would ever face.

Exeter did not make the trip north with the sole intention of enjoying their big day out and as embarrassing as it was for United to draw with them, Neville admired how hard they fought. It was the kind of performance that explains why there is still such a buzz on third-round weekend.

“I remember it really well,” Neville says. “The first game, Sir Alex Ferguson played the young players and to be fair Exeter fought like mad. They deserved their draw. They brought absolutely thousands to the game and you think to yourself, the amount of supporters they brought to one game, it probably takes them 10 games to replicate that in the league. The atmosphere was incredible and they fully deserved their draw.”

Ferguson brought his main players for the replay and United edged through with goals from Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. “I remember when we went down to St James Park, for the first 20 minutes, they put us under unbelievable pressure,” Neville says. “The pitch was absolutely terrible. It was a bog. It was an absolute struggle to get through. That was one of our toughest games and they always are. I remember playing Tamworth and Macclesfield with Everton. These games, I used to hate them, because you couldn’t win. If you won, it was expected, if you lost, then you were open to a lot of criticism. There was always a nervousness and a tension around the third round.”

Neville’s one-step guide for avoiding a giant-killing is simple enough. He says it is all about attitude and United will be in peril if there is any complacency when they play League One’s Yeovil Town at Huish Park on Sunday.

“You can’t underestimate them,” Neville says. “I used to study a lot of the opponents I would play against and to be honest it would just go out of the window when you play the likes of Exeter. You look at the Exeter winger three or four games beforehand and it’s not the same player you’re playing against at Old Trafford because they raise their game by 60%.

“What you’ve prepared for is not what you’re going to get. The biggest thing you’ve got to make sure as a Premier League club is that your attitude is spot on.

“These are not easy games. Ultimately, at the end of the day, if your attitude is right then you’ll win the game. If your attitude is not right, then you’re in for a really difficult afternoon. Sometimes when you go into these games, you start the game and think it’s going to be easy and then you realise it’s not and you can’t just switch into a mode of ‘right, I’m going to play 15% harder’. You have to start the game at 110% and then with 30 minutes to go, hopefully the game is won and you can drop your levels a little bit. If you start off thinking it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be a difficult afternoon for you and it’s very rarely that you can get back up to maximum.”

Neville’s manager at Everton, David Moyes, would approach ties with lower league sides forensically. “We played Macclesfield and he actually took us to the ground and showed us the dressing room the day before,” Neville says. “He didn’t want the foreign players in particular to have a culture shock in terms of the pitch, the surroundings, the dressing rooms on the day of the game, he wanted that shock out of their system.

“He really understood because he played and managed in the lower leagues so he knew what it meant. That’s something he often did against lower league teams. There’s not enough room for massage tables or baths. He wanted to make sure they couldn’t use that as an excuse the day after for their performances.”

Ferguson did not lose his temper after the draw with Exeter. “After the game he realised that you could play Exeter 1,000 times on the training ground or in a league game and you’d beat them,” Neville says. “He said things happen in the FA Cup that don’t happen in any other competition you’ll ever play in. Strange things happen.”

Phil Neville is part of the BBC’s FA Cup lineup. Watch Match of the Day 2: FA Cup highlights at 10.30pm on BBC1