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What do you enhance a stellar experienced team that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have played at the highest level of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.

One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

Their roster this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite appearances.

The elite roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward 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 ex- top-flight players have secured 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.

"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a