Fans were left shocked on Sunday after Ghana’s “Black Stars” lost to the Cape Verde Islands, the smallest of the 24 teams playing at AFCON.
Hughton was accosted at the team hotel as Ghana returned from the match, but the angry fan was intercepted by security officials.
The Black Stars coach was also subjected to a volley of a verbal abuse, officials told Reuters.
It was a second successive defeat by an underrated opponent after Ghana lost in November in the World Cup qualifiers to the Comoros Islands.
"We are incredibly, hugely disappointed with the result. We came into the game with a game plan," Hughton told a press conference.
"We changed the way of playing, the system a bit so that we could start on the front foot," he added.
Hughton said the team he selected to play was supposed to be “a more offensive team."
"I think it rocked us the (first) goal that we conceded but I thought we got back into the game," he said.
The Black Stars were behind after 17 minutes in a match in which they were highly fancied and fielded a team full of players based at European clubs.
The West African team equalized in the second half but were beaten by a stoppage time strike from Garry Rodrigues.
"At that stage (when Ghana equalized) it looked like we could go on and win it. We are hugely, hugely disappointed with our result," Hughton said.
"And I know, and this group of players also know, how the Ghanaian people see this game, see this tournament and our expectations going into this one."
Former Ireland international Hughton, whose father hailed from Ghana, has been coach of the team since March, having helped them at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar as a technical advisor.
His record is four wins in 11 games.
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