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How can you improve a excellent veteran team that have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for additional trophies.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their active roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 top-flight matches.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

"Our side competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a