READING FC fans could barely contain their excitement after the Royals drew Manchester United in the next round of the FA Cup yesterday evening.

Jaap Stam will return to Old Trafford for the first time as a manager following his stint as a United player in the late 90s and early 00s, and the manager revealed his excitement at the tough draw.

The manager said: "I found out yesterday evening – to be fair I didn’t realise that the draw was yesterday. 

“I knew that it was at the beginning of December, but Stevie (Reid) sent me a message about the draw. 

"I’ve been back before of course after I stopped playing for different reasons.  But now to play in the FA Cup with Reading in front of the 80,000 fans that they get every home game will be very exciting. 

“There are a lot of teams still in the draw, so you don’t expect United to come out – especially at Old Trafford.  But it’s nice – you want to play against the biggest teams, because a lot of players want to play in the Premier League and show themselves and what they can do to the world – and now they have got their chance. 

“It’ll be interesting to see who they play as well – you don’t know whether they’ll play a first XI, but the whole squad has a lot of quality.  They are a great side with a great manager, so it’s going to be interesting to play at Old Trafford and to see what we can do.” 

Fans waited in anticipation to see who the Royals - ball number 32 - would face on the weekend of January 7/8 in the third round of the cup.

And when the opposition turned out to be the Red Devils, fans took to Twitter to express their joy.

Last season under Brian McDermott, Royals made it the quarter-finals of the competition before crashing out against former boss Alan Pardew's Crystal Palace.

The year before that they went even better when Steve Clarke's side were narrowly beaten 2-1 by Arsenal in extra time in the semi final at Wembley.

And Stam will have plenty of work to do if Reading are to progress this season after drawing the Premier League giants - ball number 25 - away from home.

And it was not just the fans and the manager who were excited by the draw.

Stam won the competition in the 1998/99 season with Manchester United while he was a part of the iconic treble-winning team under Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Dutchman made 127 appearances for the Red Devils, scoring once, before he was sold to Lazio in 2001.

And while Stam will relish the test against his former employers, the Royals have never won at Old Trafford.

Their best result was a 0-0 draw in August 2007, despite Dave Kitson being sent off just moments after coming onto the pitch.