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How do you boost a stellar experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former pro players that have played at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you target further honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

The roster this season features 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This elite team also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home game against defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - 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?

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a