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How can you enhance a outstanding veteran side who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?

Recruit a group of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club and global soccer as you aim for additional honors.

A Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their present squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.

The roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This high-profile squad also contains 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The squad for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have secured 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Famous Figures and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who come and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.

"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

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

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a