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How do you boost a excellent veteran squad that have secured back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you aim for further trophies.

A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their current lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

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

The squad list this campaign includes nine former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 elite appearances.

The star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

They include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their last home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - 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 keep running.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

'Surreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old 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 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a