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How do you boost a stellar veteran squad that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club and global football as you pursue additional silverware.

One Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

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

The roster this campaign boasts nine former top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have secured 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

"If you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

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

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

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

"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a