ANDREW Surman admitted Cherries were undone by their own "unforgivable sloppiness" and "carelessness" in Saturday's dispiriting defeat at Hull.

The visitors were one goal to the good and in total charge against the struggling Tigers until Abel Hernandez nodded home a 32nd minute equaliser.

That moment heralded a shift in the tone of the contest, with Hull seizing the ascendancy and scoring twice more – through Hernandez again and a Tyrone Mings own goal – to win 3-1.

"We started really well and were in complete control of the game," said Surman.

"We were unlucky not to be more than one goal up – but the game just seemed to swing.

"Once they got their first goal it gave them a lift and it was a position we shouldn't have really been in.

"We were sloppy and didn't keep the ball long enough. We allowed them back in the game and it was unforgivable.

"We created our own problems, we were in complete control of the game and sloppiness and carelessness let us down."

Surman was one of only two players – along with Mings – who was retained in Cherries' starting X1 by Eddie Howe following the previous week's FA Cup defeat at Millwall.

Howe had hoped his side's fresh legs would prove a major advantage against Hull, whose threadbare squad has offered new manager Marco Silva no chance to rotate.

But midfielder Surman said his boss was furious with his side's performance in East Yorkshire – not that the players needed telling their efforts hadn't been up to scratch.

"The manager was really disappointed afterwards," said Surman.

"We all know it's not good enough. We have set our standards high and we have come here and not produced as good a performance as we know we can.

"The manner of the defeat is also not good and no one in the dressing room is happy."

Surman blamed a lack of focus for his team's two-faced display.

And he is determined the same failure doesn't afflict his team again, with the first chance to rectify matters coming when they host Watford at Vitality Stadium on Saturday – with a visit from Crystal Palace to follow 10 days later.

"We’ve got to make sure that we stay on it, stay focused during the game and I think we lost that a little bit during the first half and allowed them back in the match," continued Surman.

“We’ve got to move on now. We’ve got a massive game against Watford and we need to make sure we pick up points against them. We have two big home games coming up.

“Mentally we’re strong, we’ve got good characters and a good team spirit. That helps when you do come back off some bad results.

“I’m sure we’ll pull everyone together... we can’t lose too much confidence.

"We need to look at what we can improve on, what we can change and we need to go into the next game full of belief.”