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How do you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of former professionals that have performed at the elite level of club and global football as you aim for additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

Their squad list this season includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite appearances.

This elite roster also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete 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 goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a