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What do you boost a outstanding veteran team that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest level of club and international soccer as you pursue further honors.

One Manchester club fields an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their present squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.

Their roster this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

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

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

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

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a