Meet the Weekend League Team Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What can you boost a excellent experienced squad who have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have played at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target more honors.
A Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.
The roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
The elite roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their most recent home game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League footballers have secured fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.
Household Names and International Stars
Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and see are happy and to make a day if they watch 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."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a