SO, that's it then. Another football season is over bar the shouting. It's right what they say, you know - the older you get the quicker time slips by.

And I must be positively ancient. I can't believe it was seven months ago that God's Own team put those Chelsea up-starts in their place.

Need I point out that the Blessed Blues were the only team this season to pluck the feathers of the strutting Portuguese peacock that perches in the manager's chair at Stamford Bridge?

How was it for you then? Stop it. I'm still talking football, here. Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Here are a few random memories, irritations and giggles which might occupy your mind while you're waiting for Coronation Street to come on.

GREAT UNDER-ACHIEVERS

Nothing to do with the FA Cup final because if that match had been a boxing bout, the referee would have stopped it at half time to prevent Arsenal taking further punishment. Arsene, are you George Graham in disguise? Boring for Great Britain.

But Sir Taggart's players should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Eighteen points worse than Chelsea? You've got to be kidding. 58 from 38 Premiership matches. What? With '50m worth of strikers on the books. That's not just under-achieving. That's criminal negligence.

Unwanted advice for Keano and company. When you're playing the likes of Portsmouth and West Brom next season, pretend it's Arsenal. Do that and I'll guarantee that you won't be 18 points adrift of Chelsea this time next year.

A STAR IS BORN

Some are born to greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them. And Stuart Pearce comes in the second category. He wouldn't have got the manager's job at Eastlands if King Kev hadn't done a runner but what a blessing in disguise that turned out to be.

Yes, Psycho has proved nothing yet. Yes, the hard part is yet to come. But I know I'm speaking for every Blue Mooner when I say "thank-you" to Pearce for allowing us to dream our dreams again.

The last day of the season and we've still got a chance of qualifying for Europe. I still can't believe I'm writing those words. The fact we didn't make it doesn't matter. You've got to be there to lose it and we were going nowhere fast under Keegan. This is one City fan who can't wait for next season to start - and I can't remember the last time I said that.

STATS THAT MAKE YOU DESPAIR

Everton qualified for the Champions' League by finishing in fourth place in the Premiership yet, in terms of points, they were closer to the bottom than the top.

What does that fact tell you? For a start it tells you that Everton's only real achievement was to finish on top of the Premiership's "middle" league. It also tells you that next season, and the season after that, only Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United will win the championship trophy unless Liverpool pull their fingers out. And we mock the Scottish Premier League. Why mock? It's the same down here.

YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE

Rupert Lowe, the chairman of Southampton, loses Gordon Strachan which is extremely careless of him. He poaches Paul Sturrock from mighty Plymouth Argyle which is extremely foolish of him. Two games into the season he sacks Sturrock which is exceedingly impatient of him.

Chairman Lowe then up-grades Steve Wigley from youth-team coach to manager which is downright barmy of him. When it's too late he demotes Wigley and gives the manager's job to Harry Redknapp which is shutting-the-gate-after-the- horse-has-bolted of him. Southampton are duly relegated after 27 years in the top-flight. And whoever first uttered the words " you reap what you sow" surely had Rupert Lowe in mind.

SIGHTS THAT MAKE YOU CRINGE

Footballers who wear their socks above their knees. Yes, I'm talking about you, Mr.Henry and you Master Ronaldo. How naff is that? Who ever got cold knees playing football? Footballers who pull their socks over their knees are Big Girls' Blouses. They'll be wearing suspenders next to keep `em up.

PUT-DOWNS TO REMEMBER (PART ONE )

Gordon Strachan poked fun at the excess weight being carried by the Thurrock manager Colin McBride. Back came this wonderful riposte from the understandably needled McBride. "I can always go on a diet. But what can Strachan do about the colour of his hair and his stupid voice."

Game, set and match to the chubby one, I would suggest.

PUT-DOWNS TO REMEMBER (PART TWO)

Alan Sugar, successful businessmen, star of "The Apprentice" on tv and one time chairman of Tottenham Hotspur giving his views on professional footballers: "They are the biggest scum that walk on this planet and, if they weren't football players, most of them would be in prison." Don't you just hate people who sit on the fence? Come on, Alan. Tell us what you REALLY think.

WORST CHAIRMAN

Is there something in the air down on the south coast? I wouldn't trust the Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe to run a Sunday League club but he's a positive football genius compared to his Portsmouth counterpart Milan Mandaric.

Remember mirthless Milan? It was he who forced Harry Redknapp out of Fratton Park and replaced him with Velimir Zajec. And now Mandaric has the brass nerve to claim that decision kept Pompey in the Premiership.

"We are still in the Premiership and Southampton have gone down," said Mandaric. " These things don't happen by accident. What makes me feel good is that the decisions I was strong enough to make have been proved right."

Ungracious, un-called for, insulting - and factually wrong. It is the points Portsmouth amassed during the opening 13 games under Redknapp which kept that club in the Premiership. Under Zajec, Pompey picked up only 16 points from 18 matches which - computed over a season - is relegation form. Keep on making those strong decisions, chairman Mandaric. You'll need to be strong when you take your club down a division. Work for him? I'd rather clean the toilets at Piccadilly Station.

BEST CHAIRMAN

Everyone laughed when Dave Whelan bought Wigan Athletic and said he would turn them into a Premiership club within ten years. Well, nobody is laughing now. He's put his money where his mouth is and if anyone deserves a place at the top table of English football, then Dave Whelan is that man.

Wigan's success story isn't just about a rich businessman indulging a whim. You've only got to listen to Whelan talking to realise how passionately he cares for his club. And I hope the people in that town don't let him down when Premiership football arrives next season. The club's genuine supporters were deeply offended when I wrote earlier this season that Wigan the town didn't deserve Wigan the football club. Those remarks were never aimed at them. They were aimed at the arm-chair fans who have been conspicuous only by their absence. I call on those fans to prove me wrong. Pack out the JJB Stadium for every match next season. You owe Dave Whelan at least that much.

BEST MANAGER (PREMIERSHIP)

AT the highest level it was a toss-up between Jose Mourinho and David Moyes. Yes, Mourinho had all the cash but winning two major trophies with a new team in your first season in England takes some beating. Jose would lick himself to death if he was made of ice-cream and he's got a terrible taste in overcoats but he's won me over. When he said he was the Special One on his first day at Stamford Bridge, he wasn't kidding.

At Everton, Moyes has spent on his team what amounts to the loose change in Roman Abramovich's pocket. Yet in the space of twelve months he's taken the Toffees from fourth bottom in the Premiership to fourth from top. Over-achieving or managerial brilliance? Next season will answer that question. So who has been the best Premiership manager this season, Mourinho or Moyes? In my book you couldn't slip a sheet of paper between them. It's a dead heat.

BEST MANAGER (FOOTBALL LEAGUE)

I'm old enough now to remember when Hull City were a major football club which attracted huge crowds. I thought those days had gone forever. Not so much a sleeping giant as a seriously dead one.

A couple of years ago, when Peter Taylor took charge at Hull, the club was languishing in the middle of the bottom division. Next season they will be playing in the Coca-Cola Championship League after gaining automatic promotion for a second time. The supporters have returned in their thousands to prove that, for all those years, the giant was only sleeping after all. It just took an exception manager like Taylor to wake it from its slumbers.

Down in the bargain basement, tears were shed at Macclesfield's Moss Rose headquarters on Saturday when the Silkmen failed to reach the play-off final when drawing 1-1 with Lincoln City.

There was no need for those tears. When the season started Macclesfield were the bookies' red-hot favourites for relegation to the Conference League. In fact they were everyone's favourites for the drop. But on a shoestring budget and with a squad so thin you could see through it, the Macclesfield manager Brian Horton steered his team to the very brink of promotion. Tears? The Macc fans should have been doing a clog-dance for simply getting that far.

Peter Taylor at Hull, Brian Horton at Macclesfield. Two managers who never got a fair crack of the whip at the highest level but who can stand proud in any company. Which of the two has been the best manager in the Football League this season. I'm going for "Nobby" Horton...I might now get that pint he owes me.

What awards would you have handed out for this season? Have your say.

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