Discover this Weekend League Team With 1,800 Top-Flight Games

What can you boost a excellent veteran team who have won consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 games?

Sign a raft of former pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue more honors.

One Greater Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

Their roster this campaign includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined over 1,800 elite appearances.

The elite roster also boasts 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.

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

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

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

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

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

"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a