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How can you improve a excellent veteran team that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue further honors.

One Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

Their lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This elite team also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go 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 continue attacking.

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.

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

"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a