Meet the Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
What do you boost a excellent experienced team who have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club and international soccer as you aim for further silverware.
A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.
The squad list this season boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
This star-studded team also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If 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 watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a