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How do you improve a outstanding experienced side that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of ex- professionals who have played at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for further honors.

One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.

Their squad list this season boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

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

"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

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

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

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

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

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

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a