Discover this Weekend League Squad With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances

What do you boost a stellar veteran squad who have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for more silverware.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

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

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

The elite squad also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The fans who come and see are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

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

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

"The opponents were all friendly, 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 Win the League'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a