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How do you boost a stellar veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a collection of ex- pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for further honors.

A Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their active roster.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.

The roster this season features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

This elite squad also contains 222 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"Those spectators who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's 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 organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

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

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

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a