Monk: Swans not naive at the back

Swansea suffered a painful last-gasp defeat to Tottenham last weekend when full-back Jazz Richards' mistake led to Christian Eriksen's winner and pundits were quick to pin the blame on the team's passing style.

But Monk said his players were not told to pass it out from the back in such situations and that the ball would end up at the other end of the pitch at struggling Hull on Saturday if it happened again.

"It's not about the Swansea way, that we have to pass it out from the back," manager Monk said ahead of his side's Barclays Premier League visit to the KC Stadium.

"The pundits were wrong in that sense. Yes, we play a passing game, but there are areas to play and times in the game to do it.

"I've made that mistake myself. I spoke to Jazz straight after the game and he recognised the mistake instantly.

"I can 99 per cent guarantee that if Jazz was in that position again, in that period again, you would probably see the ball at the other end of the pitch.

"Of course we want to pass the ball out but we are not stupid.

"Imagine Jazz did it again next game and did not learn from his mistake. That is when you have a problem, but in terms of the Swansea way I think we are a bit better than that."

Monk admitted the Spurs defeat left him with one of the worst feelings of his career after Swansea had dominated the game for large periods and spurned plenty of scoring opportunities before Eriksen's late sucker punch.

It was also ninth-placed Swansea's second straight league defeat and Monk has never lost three in a row during his fledgling managerial career.

Hull have only won once at home all season, their last victory against Crystal Palace nine games ago, but Swansea have a dismal record at the KC Stadium where they have failed to score on their three previous visits, let alone take a point.

"We don't want to lose three in a row so we're determined to make sure we put an end to that and go on a good run," Monk said.

"We could have been better results-wise recently, but I don't know what else we could have done in some of those situations apart from being more clinical.

"We're a difficult team to play against and apart from the West Ham game we haven't really been out of games.

"It shows how well we've been competing and the football at times has been fantastic, we have to keep doing that in as many games as possible."

Swansea lost last season's corresponding fixture in April when both clubs were still in relegation peril and Hull released the pressure valve through George Boyd's winner.

Monk's men had their hunger levels questioned that day and had to wait another fortnight to confirm their top-flight safety, and the Swansea boss admits they must match Hull's work-rate if they are to get anything out of the game.

"The thing with us tends to be that if we have a bad day, everybody has a bad day," Monk said.

"It is not as though it is a couple of players and you can change things round. It happened at West Ham a few weeks ago and it was the same at Hull last season.

"They are high energy and have a good work ethic and we will have to match that.

"But we have shown this season we can hurt teams. If we match that work-rate we have a chance, which I promote to the players every day in training, so hopefully we can get the right reaction."