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How can you improve a stellar veteran team who have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you aim for further silverware.

One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

Their roster this campaign boasts nine former top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight matches.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for 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 every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Players

Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"After that he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - 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 fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing 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 felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

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

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a