Arbroath landed the jackpot when Paul Sheerin’s men were drawn to face Rangers in the Scottish Cup.
The SPL champions will travel to Gayfield on January 7 or 8 and the tie could be worth over £100,000 to the Second Division high fliers if, as expected, it is televised live.
The fourth-round draw threw up a host of other intriguing ties for clubs in this area.
At McDiarmid Park there will be a repeat of last season’s all-Tayside quarter-final between St Johnstone and Brechin.
If Forfar can overcome Stranraer in their third-round replay they’ll welcome Aberdeen down the road, Dundee have a home tie against SPL Kilmarnock, while Dundee United will have a second cup trip of the season to face Airdrie United, who they defeated in the League Cup.
There’s a potential upset on the cards for Hibs, as they have to travel to in-form Cowdenbeath. There’s an all-SPL clash in the Highlands between Inverness Caley Thistle and Dunfermline, and East Fife are away to Falkirk. Raith Rovers will face familiar opposition in Morton.
There can be little argument that the eye-catching tie of the round will be at Arbroath though.
Sheerin said: ”I was working while the draw was being made and I couldn’t get it up on the computer, so when I was told we’d got Rangers I was obviously delighted.
”It’s a massive boost for the club. As a manager I can see the bigger picture and this will be great for our finances. We had a bad winter last year so this will really help out.
”Saturday’s match at Keith was actually the first cup game I’ve won as a manager, and to pull Rangers out of the hat as a result is brilliant.”
Sheerin is no stranger to Old Firm cup shocks, having been part of the Inverness side that famously knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and the Saints team that defeated Rangers at Ibrox in the League Cup.
He admitted: ”Most players would go a career without beating the Old Firm in a cup tie so to do it twice with First Division teams has given me great memories.
”When the match comes round we’ll have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
”For the next couple of days we’ll enjoy being in the spotlight but then we’ll have to make sure we’re going into the match on the back of some good league results.”
For Brechin and St Johnstone a lot has changed since they met in last season’s last eight.
Glebe Park boss Weir said: ”At this moment in time it’s a harder task for us. It’s always nice to go back to St Johnstone though, and hopefully we can cause an upset.”
United manager Peter Houston feels his players will benefit from their previous experience of Airdrie’s synthetic pitch.
He said: ”It’s one of the better artificial pitches and it certainly won’t be used an excuse. The good thing is we’ve played on it before so we know what it’s like.
”We also trained on it the day before the game and we’ll do that again before we play in the cup.”
On drawing Inverness, Dunfermline boss Jim McIntyre commented: ”It’s a tough game. It’s probably the toughest we could have got, with it being the only all-Premier League tie.”