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What can you boost a excellent veteran squad who have won consecutive championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club and global football as you aim for additional silverware.

One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

The squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.

The elite roster also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Experience

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

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

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

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a