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How do you improve a outstanding veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a collection of ex- pro players who have competed at the elite tier of club football and international football as you target additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.

The lineup this campaign features 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 elite games.

The high-profile squad also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see 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."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a