O, it's over for another year ? no more league football. There might be four weeks of cup football remaining ? bizarrely including three straight weeks of FA Cup action ? but the bread and butter of the domestic season has been dispensed with, and without too many genuine shocks. If anything, the biggest shock was that the management duo of Dwayne (Streaker) Adams and Maceo Dill came out of nowhere to lead Village to league glory ? and the possibility of the triple crown, which is very much still on their agenda.

The surprise isn't Village winning the league ? they are, after all, one of the island's perennial top clubs.

The surprise is that the men who took the helm had so little experience of management between them that there were plenty of critics prepared to suggest the mighty Reds might even end up flirting with relegation with this dynamic due on their rudder.

Those doomsayers couldn't have been further from the truth, with the men from Bernard Park claiming two trophies already and reaching the semi-final of the Martonmere, the final of the Dudley Eve and are still in both the remaining cabinet-filling events to be played.

Early form had suggested a revitalised Somerset Trojans might be early challengers for the crown ? an enormous squad marshalled by the dominant Dennis Brown, ably assisted by the wily Paul Scope, looked good in the opening clashes of the season, but their challenge fell away before 2005 was out.

Holders Devonshire Cougars ? missing arguably the domestic game's most potent striker, Raymond Beach, for reasons that may never truly become clear ? were never the force they had been the previous year.

Lacking obvious goalscorers, even Andrew Bascome's incredible tactical nous was never going to be enough for them while Dandy Town, missing the likes of Lionel Furbert and Khano Smith from the previous campaign that had gone down to the final weekend, weren't quite their old selves this year, relying a little too much on Carlos Smith and throwing away too many vital points over the long season.

At the other end of the table, there were no real surprises as the two newcomers to the top flight never quite improved their sides enough in the summer of promotion and ended up going straight back from whence they came.

Just how terrible Ireland Rangers would be, however, was beyond most people's expectations ? the whipping boys failing to get a point well into the new year and finding themselves on the end of some miserable and frequent drubbings, Village's 9-0 and 7-2 being the best example of men against boys football.

Somehow they began a late season renaissance that saw them go unbeaten for three straight games and all of a sudden some kind of FA cup consolation, however fanciful, would not be completely beyond the realms of possibility.

Colts, whose dreams of survival lasted a little longer than expected, never really looked at home in the top division, often appearing flimsy and lightweight in the face of more powerful and experienced sides.

There were times when perhaps they looked like they could overtake Boulevard, but the Blazers put in enough of a late burst to ensure there would be no such upset ? they instead finished in their usual mid-table position.

First Division winners Paget may fare a little better than the class of 2005-6 in their first ever outing in the top flight.

With players such as Yusaff Pitt, Dion Stovell and the age-defying Marvin Belboda as part of their forward line ? all with plenty of Premier experience ? and former national team sweeper Leroy Stevens at the back, the Lions should be in a position to roar above the bottom two places next year.

St. David's, with some, but not much, experience of the higher level will need to do some serious off-season upheaval, in contrast, if they are to make any inroads into next year's league.