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How do you enhance a stellar veteran squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have performed at the elite tier of club and global soccer as you target further silverware.

One Manchester club has an amateur veterans team with 9 former Premier League players in their active lineup.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The roster this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.

This elite team also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have won fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

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

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

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

"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.

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

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

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a