Well don't feel alone.
I've had to follow quite a few ham-handed grauncher mechanics in my day. I think they breed. 
So when you reinstalled the new filter did you fill it with clean fuel first?
Did you bleed all the air from the fuel system with the priming pump, including the fuel injection pump and the injectors before you tried to start it?
If it ran before, no reason it shouldn't run again. 