Jimmy Ball’s tenure as Torquay United manager began with a 1-0 loss at Dagenham and Redbridge in National League South.
Ball joined the club last week from rivals AFC Totton following the sacking of Paul Wotton at the start of the month.
George Marsh’s goal after 74 minutes was the difference between the sides as former England striker Andy Carroll took charge of the hosts for the first time since his appointment earlier in the week.
The loss sees Torquay drop to seventh place in the division as they failed to win for the eighth time in 10 games.
“It’s not what anyone wanted obviously, but then you’ve got to look at the manner in which you get beat,” Ball told BBC Radio Devon.
“It’s a bit of a tough goal to take, disappointing from my point of view, but the players didn’t lie down, the players didn’t give up, they ran and fought and we had a right go and we put everything on them at the end.
“Ultimately we need to do a little bit more and have a little bit more quality in moments and then deal with that moment and not concede from a direct from a corner, that’s obviously very disappointing.”
Ball says he was frustrated by his side as they failed to have enough quality in key moments, although he felt they did enough to come away from the Daggers with a point.
“With the quality we’ve got on the pitch, final balls, final decision-making, that’s what the game’s all about, end products,” he added.
“The last thing you do with the ball is all that matters – there was some lovely stuff, but then the last thing you do with the ball wasn’t quite good enough here today.
“I don’t think we deserved to concede, I thought they defended fantastically well to a man, headed everything, fought.
“But you don’t get what you deserve sometimes. I think a 0-0 was about right, but we didn’t get that unfortunately.”
