🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a excellent veteran side who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of former pro players that have competed at the highest level of club and international football as you pursue additional honors.

One Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their current lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

Their squad list this campaign includes nine former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded squad also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Dreamlike' Experience

Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a