🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding experienced side that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club and international football as you pursue further silverware.

A Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.

Their roster this season boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite appearances.

The high-profile team also boasts 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League footballers have secured 15 major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and see are happy and to give a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

"I think I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

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

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a