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How can you enhance a stellar experienced team who have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former professionals that have played at the highest level of club and international football as you target additional trophies.

A Manchester side has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their active lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

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

The lineup this season features nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

The elite team also contains 222 top division goals and 325 international caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home game against reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

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

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a