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How do you boost a outstanding veteran side that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of former professionals who have played at the top tier of club and international football as you aim for further honors.

A Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

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

Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This elite roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

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

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

"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

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

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

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a