Meet the Sunday Division Club With 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

What do you improve a stellar veteran team that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club and global football as you aim for additional trophies.

One Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current squad.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

Their squad list this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

The elite team also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The squad for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have secured 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a