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How do you improve a stellar veteran side who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the elite tier of club and global football as you target additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances

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

The squad list this season includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.

This elite roster also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.

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

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

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

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling 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 fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a