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How do you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 games?

Bring in a group of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club and international football as you aim for additional honors.

A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur vets team with nine former top-flight players in their present roster.

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

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.

The lineup this season boasts nine ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.

The star-studded roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

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

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to make a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like 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 debut at full-back.

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

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

"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a