David King insisted it was back to the drawing board after a frustrating night with pairs partner Stacey Kemp in the Olympic team figure skating competition.
Kemp and King, who finished 16th four years ago in Vancouver, admitted they were far from their best as they made their first appearance in Sochi.
The team event is a new addition to the Olympic programme and features one entry per nation in each figure skating discipline performing their short program.
Britain are seeded tenth of the ten qualified nations and only the top five, after Saturday's second phase, will get to perform their free skate.
King and Kemp placed tenth of ten couples in the pairs division and when their scores were added to Matt Parr, who ranked ninth the men's field, Great Britain were in tenth position overall, with Jenna McCorkell and ice dancers Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland due to skate this weekend.
"One or two things didn't go our way but we have to move on from that, you can't dwell on anything in skating," said King, after his partner fell following a throw to cost them valuable marks.
"It's nice to get out there and get some time on the rink in front of a crowd. However, we've got a lot of work to do before we compete in our main event next week. We just have to improve and find the elements the judges thought we were missing.
"We had a lot of injuries last season but this has been a good year but in this event you live on a knife-edge and if you come off balance that's five or ten points.
"It's good to get a performance in and settle the nerves but we need to focus on some things that need work. We've got a few days to get back at it.
"We are a lot stronger than we were four years ago. Our skating speed has improved, we are more stylish, we understand a lot more. We have elements in our program that we never would have contemplated in Vancouver. We've come on leaps and bounds but we need to put it together on the day."
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