Meet the Weekend League Team With Over 1,800 English Top Division Games

What can you improve a excellent veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target further honors.

One Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.

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

The team Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League games.

The elite roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

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

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

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

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

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

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

Dreamlike' Experience

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a