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How do you improve a excellent veteran side that have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a collection of former professionals that have competed at the elite tier of club and global soccer as you pursue more silverware.

One Manchester side has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.

The lineup this season features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 elite games.

This high-profile team also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy 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 full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a