...and so we face, the final curtain (Alty 0 - 2 U's)

As another season approaches it's zenith, spare a thought for poor old Alan Green.

It must be a difficult life for 5Live commentator Green, whose job involves travelling to Football's biggest matches and watching the individual genius of players like Messi, Ronaldo, and Rooney at first hand. But apparently we don't know just how hard it is.

"This is dire" he lamented during today's Birmingham derby. "It sums up what a terrible Premiership season it has been." And he's got to endure the World Cup next month, bless his heart. If Alan is so unhappy with his lot perhaps he should do the listening public - and himself - a favour and apply his talents to another sport. Like gymnastics. Or fencing.

Mr Green is of course entitled to his opinion, but I don't think you can really appreciate dire until you've seen Andy Parkinson scurry around ineffectively for 90 minutes. And I hate to think what his comments would have been had he sat through the Chester game at the Abbey, or the Eastbourne game, or at least half a dozen other matches United have participated in during 2009/10, a season which at long last limped to a conclusion yesterday with a 2-0 win at Altrincham.

Despite our travails in the middle third of the season, like most fans I go into the summer break with a good deal of hope for next term, not least because of the emergence of Adam Marriott. Super Maz leapt from the bench again yesterday to net two goals to leave Lingy purring; "I think he'll be a product, I really believe it. Goals speak words and the kid can finish."

Goals speak words eh, profound stuff. But I do think the boss deserves credit for the way he has handled Marriott's introduction to the first team. By restricting his on-pitch time he has minimised the pressure on the striker's young shoulders, as well as hopefully keeping his feet on the ground. We've all seen young players who think they've made it before they have - Luke Guttridge being an obvious recent example - and while there will inevitably be big expectations of Marriott ahead of next year, it won't do anyone any good if he starts to believe his own hype.

The other notable aspect of Lingy's post match utterances was the possibility of him bringing in another coach. He's been speaking in glowing terms about Cardy recently, and it will be interesting to see how the dynamic between the two is affected if one of the gaffer's old muckers - Dean Smith or Kevin Nugent for example - arrive over the summer. There's no doubt having another person to sit on the bench with the boss would be an advantage, but on the other hand it could lead to a three's a crowd situation, with Carden being the odd one out...

*Send me your 20-word match reports on the Altrincham game. Email cufcblog@googlemail.com, visit the U's Blog twitter page, or leave a comment under this post.