Discover this Weekend Division Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games

How do you boost a outstanding veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club and global soccer as you target more trophies.

One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.

The lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight matches.

The elite team also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

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

Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

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

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a