🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a stellar experienced side who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have played at the elite tier of club and international football as you pursue further silverware.

One Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

The squad list this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.

The high-profile squad also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

The squad include one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big honors and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a