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How can you boost a excellent veteran squad who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club football and international football as you target more honors.

One Greater Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their current squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

The squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight games.

The high-profile squad also includes 222 top division goals and 325 international caps.

They include one forward, who netted 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

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

Collectively, the former top-flight players have won fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The fans who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

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

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division 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 former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not stopped 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 facing a bunch of normal fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a