Meet the Sunday Division Team With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
What can you enhance a stellar experienced side that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 games?
Sign a raft of former professionals that have performed at the top tier of club football and global football as you target more honors.
A Manchester side has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.
The roster this season includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight appearances.
The elite team also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The team for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a