Graham Potter admitted Swansea City have to sharpen up their act in both boxes after being left to rue a nightmare final 20 minutes at Hull.
Wilfried Bony had marked his first start of the season with his first goal for 11 months to give the Swans the perfect start after just three minutes.
Potter’s men had enough chances to kill off the Tigers with Bony denied a second by Todd Kane’s goal-line clearance.
And they were handed a lifeline by keeper Erwin Mulder who saved Jarrod Bowen’s penalty after he had been dubiously penalised for bringing down Fraizer Campbell.
But Bowen struck twice in the final 20 minutes and Tommy Elphick was allowed to score with a header from a corner from wide out as Potter’s men capitulated.
Sub Bersant Celina’s goal with two minutes left was not enough.
“The reality is we were not good enough in both boxes,” admitted Potter after his side missed the chance of a third straight victory. “That’s the reality.
“Football isn’t a beauty contest. It’s not about style of play. It’s about what you decide to do to be good at it.
“And today we weren’t good enough. It’s a sore point for us.
“It’s a lesson for us in terms of game management, which overall could be better.
“The boys are honest they know we need to do better in terms of how we defend the box and how we are when we are attacking to limit the opportunity for teams transitioning on us.
“Then we need to finish better. You can talk all you want but the game is about what happens in the boxes and they scored three goals and we scored two.
“It is a sore one for us. I cannot sit here and say everything was bad, we did a lot of things well but we were not good enough.
“If we score that second goal and kill it off maybe the atmosphere changes here.
“But we didn’t and while it is 1-0 it does not take much and the ball is in your box and in the back of your net.
Bony fired Swansea ahead with a cracking 20-yard drive that beat ex-Cardiff City keeper David Marshall and went in off the post.
Bony was close with another couple of chances, Matt Grimes – who had a fine game in midfield – forced a save out of Marshall while Nathan Dyer was off-target twice.
Mulder rescued the visitors with a great save to deny Bowen from 12 yards.
But after Wayne Rutledge was off target after another fine move it all went wrong for Potter’s men.
Bowen levelled on 70 minutes after Grimes’ attempted block from Campbell’s cross fell to hi a couple of yards out.
Elphick headed home from wide out then Bowen drilled a shot past Mulder before Celina netted.
Hull City: Marshall; Kane, Elphick, Mazuch (de Wijs 45), Kingsley; Batty (Evandro 66), Stewart, Bowen, Irvine, Grosicki; Campbell (Martin 84)
Subs: Long, McKenzie, Keane, Dicko, Martin
Goals: Bowen 70, 80, Elphick 78
Swansea City : Mulder; Roberts, Rodon, van der Hoorn, John (James 77); Fer, Grimes; Dyer (Celina 77), Routledge; McKay; Bony (McBurnie 62)
Subs: Nordfeldt, Carter-Vickers, Naughton, Fulton