Meet the Broadbridge Heath defence who make Arsenal's backline look like a youth team.

Tony Miller, 57, John Martin, 59, Mick Parsons, 51, Keith Soane, 56, Andy Crisp, 50 and Malcolm Curnock, 50, have a combined age of 323 and the veteran rearguard insist they have no plans to retire.

The team have won their last five games and they welcome a Chelsea supporters side this weekend to their artificial pitch at the Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre.

Club treasurer Andy Crisp plays in the middle of the defence for the veterans and is considered one of the side's youngsters.

Andy said: "We aim to have football available for players from 6-60 years old. We also have a 100 club but that is for donations to Broadbridge Heath FC and has nothing to do with centurian footballers."

Andy insisted the team's experience is an asset and not a hinderance.

"We seem to get stronger as the game goes on. The opposition seem to tire a lot but we pace ourselves," he said.

"The key to our longevity seems to be that none of our players has actually given up football for any amount of time. We play every week whereas people who have packed the game up and come back to it seem to struggle.

"Gary Croydon, the Burgess Hill manager, came to play for us three seasons ago after a lay-off, but he didn't last too long.

"We play all sorts of friendlies. We have never played in a league but we take our football seriously.

"We don't seem to struggle against pacey forwards and I think the fact we play on an artificial pitch helps. We have been playing together for 13 years and are quite successful. The astro plays a different way to other pitches. It is a quick surface and inexperienced players can exhaust themselves by running after balls we know will go off."

Full-back John Martin confessed he does feel a little stiff after matches.

He said: "Often I struggle to walk properly the next day. When I take the dog for a walk after a match it is a case of the dog taking me for a walk really.

"I want to keep going until I am 60. Because the astro tends to rip your legs to shreds if you dive around, we don't tend to do any rash tackles.

"I started organising this about 20 years ago and it has been brilliant. It has kept us all together. Five of us are on the Broadbridge Heath FC Committee running the County League side.

"We rarely have any aggravation and we play once a fortnight, afterwards we always have a few beers. We all drink bitter like John Smiths, none of this lager the kids drink today."

Park Life will be supplying the 'boys' with a case of quality London Pride and good luck to them for the rest of the season.