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How do you enhance a excellent veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?

Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional silverware.

A Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The lineup this season includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 top-flight games.

This elite squad also contains 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker 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 former Premier League players have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a