Meet the Sunday League Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
What do you improve a outstanding experienced team that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of former pro players who have played at the top tier of club football and global football as you aim for further silverware.
A Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.
Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This elite roster also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Famous Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a