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How can you improve a excellent veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a collection of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club and international soccer as you target more silverware.

A Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Division.

Their squad list this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

This elite squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Stars

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

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

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

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

"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a