Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
It should have been a festival of football fun with the returning heroes playing on home soil four days after their World Cup exploits. If only.
Instead a paltry crowd you could have probably squeezed into the Gulf Air Airbus A340 that flew the team back from New Zealand greeted the side as they took on Yemen in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifier.
The inclement weather appeared to have followed them halfway across the world as a sudden downpour erupted over the pitch much to the amusement of the few youngsters in the stands.
On the pitch the players, including five fresh faces to the starting 11 involved in the Wellington debacle, put on a fast-passing display and swept aside the opposition with cracking goals from Fatadi, Hussain Salman and a brace from Abdullatif.
Just one would have been enough to have taken Bahrain to next summer's soccer fiesta in South Africa. If only.
Rumours abounded that coach Milan Macala was about to be axed and replaced by a chosen one with a Brazilian background and Middle Eastern credentials.
But the press conference passed on without incident with a stoic Macala saying the match was 'important' because the squad had to overcome the psychological trauma of missing out on World Cup qualification for a second time running at the crucial final leg stage of a winner-takes-all play-off.
If only his players had showed the same drive, passion and performance after the penalty miss in New Zealand as they did in this tie.
And the loose talk of sacking the coach proved to be unfounded a few days later when Bahrain Football Association president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa announced that he was eager for Macala to continue at the helm.
We will have to wait until the New Year to see whether the disappointed supporters who demonstrated their disappointment by staying away from the National Stadium in Riffa last Wednesday evening can be enticed back for the next qualifier against Hong Kong.
We will also have to wait for the result of an official 'elimination probe' and whether Macala signs again on the doted line when his current contract ends, ironically at a time when he could have been preparing to lead the team out in South Africa. If only.
