🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a outstanding veteran side who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club and global football as you target more honors.

One Manchester club has an non-professional vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

Their squad list this season boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

The elite squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - 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?

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

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

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a