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How do you boost a excellent experienced squad that have claimed consecutive championships, including a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and global football as you aim for more silverware.

A Greater Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.

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

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

Their lineup this season features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight games.

This star-studded squad also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.

The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.

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

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

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

"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a