What he had hoped would be a new beginning and a joyous occasion turned into a nightmare for Orlando Pirates' Swedish coach Kjell Jonevret, whose side was soundly beaten 4-1 in South Africa's FA Cup final by SuperSport United on Saturday.
As it happened, defeat for a side traditionally regarded as one of the giants of the South African game could have been even worse as SuperSport missed a penalty through New Zealand striker Jeremy Brockie, and also wasted numerous other opportunities.
Jonevret has only been in the job for four months, but already has an air of a Dead Man Walking, though he insists he should be given the time to work with the team in pre-season and into the next campaign.
"It was a nightmare," he admitted to reporters. "But it was just 1-0 at a half-time and we said then, 'we can change this'. The players really wanted to do something good here at the end of the season.
"In the second half I thought we would get back into the game, especially after Siya (Mpontshane) saved that penalty. It gave the team some energy but after they scored the second goal it was tough because it looked as if we had forgotten everything we had talked about.
"They didn't follow the game plan and it looked bad... ugly. It could have been more than 4-1. I really don't know what happened there. This was not the Orlando Pirates that we have previously seen even if we have not had a fantastic season.
"We had stabilised a little bit but this was not a reflection of that. SuperSport were much better. They did the simple things much better. They did not make any mistakes."
Jonevret - who turns 55 on Wednesday - earned the ire of a section of the Pirates' supporters, who hurled objects at him as he gave his post-match television interview.
"I'm very disappointed and so are the players and the staff and I can understand the supporters are very disappointed also," he said. "They [the players] wanted so much to do something good out there that they made the easy things difficult and that left us with no chance. We did a lot of stupid things."
Jonevret says he has turned his mind to the 2017/18 campaign, but must wait to find out if he will be given the opportunity to lead The Buccaneers into the season.
"There were a lot of positive things to take from the season. I think there are a lot of discussions at the office for next season. But we have to wait and see what will happen.
"I'm not involved in all decisions. As you could see, we have some problems and that's not just in the cup final. I'm 100 percent sure Orlando Pirates will start next season better. We will try to forget what has happened and try to be better. But there have been problems for a while.
"When I arrived I had hoped that, of course, it should be... I don't know if I should say easier... but I hoped that. OK, we had too many draws but we stabilised the team a bit. And getting to the cup final was something to be happy about at least.
"I have just begun and I hope they [Pirates management] can listen to me and the other coaches about what we need for the future to be a better team.
"I like the experience here, I get a lot of energy from the people who I meet and I can see how much the club means to them. I'm ready to work 24 hours a day just to make them happy. But there are a few things missing now to make us better."