🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a outstanding experienced side that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Sign a group of former pro players that have played at the elite tier of club football and global football as you target more trophies.

A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite games.

This star-studded squad also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

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

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a