Meet the Sunday League Squad With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

What do you enhance a excellent experienced side who have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Sign a collection of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you target additional honors.

A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

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

The roster this season features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 elite matches.

The high-profile squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"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 good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

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

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

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

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

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a