Unfortunately I didn't catch the game yesterday apart from the MoTD highlights, which - although not the last game to be shown - were shown after the goals from the Championship play-offs, so you get an idea exactly how brief they were.
With the home side having avoided relegation and ourselves having had so much focus on finishing the fourth, it was inevitable that the game would have a less intense than usual feel to it and reports certainly back this out. It was important though to finish fifth and Shaun Wright-Phillips headed equaliser helped us to this (although Richard Dunne's own goal ultimately cemented our position) and gave us a highest Premier League finish to go along with a lowest number of defeats, record points and goals totals this season.
Roberto Mancini made a couple of changes to the side, but resisted the temptation to throw Boyata, Cunningham, Nimely and Ibrahim straight in. Players who had perhaps been nursed through injury and fatigue - Tevez, Bridge and Bellamy - were ommitted, with Santa Cruz, Sylvinho and Wright-Phillips coming in with Wright-Phillips doing his World Cup hopes no harm as both he and Adam Johnson pressed their claims for selection.
Not often deployed on the left hand side, it was a timely reminder that Wright-Phillips could well be an option there for next season given Bellamy (assuming he remains at the club) has to be carefully managed and Martin Petrov will likely be playing his football elsewhere.
A fifth-placed finish then, which over the course of the season is about right you have to say. The positives far away any negativity or disappointment though and thoughts are already turning towards next season with it likely that the club will look to make its summer signings over the next month ahead of the start of the World Cup.
On a related note, over the course of this week I'll try and tie up the 2009/10 season with some squad reviews and couple of award announcements (one of which you can vote for here).