🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a outstanding experienced side who have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for more trophies.

A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine former top-flight players in their active lineup.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division.

The roster this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

This star-studded roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Household Figures and Global Players

Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

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

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

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

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a