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How do you improve a excellent veteran team who have won back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the elite level of club and international soccer as you aim for more silverware.

A Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active lineup.

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

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.

Their lineup this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 Premier League games.

The elite team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their last home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

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

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - 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.

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

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a