Slaven Bilic conceded that Hull City were the better side in the first half of West Ham's 1-0 Premier League win over Mike Phelan's men.
The Tigers – who slumped to the foot of the table after losing a seventh consecutive top-flight away match – hit the post three times before Mark Noble's contentious penalty settled the contest 14 minutes from time.
It was a second consecutive home win for the Hammers, putting a fresh perspective on their inconsistent campaign, but manager Bilic admitted it could have turned out very differently.
"In the first half definitely we were fortunate. We were sloppy, they were better," he told BBC Sport.
"We started good, but gave them a couple of chances. We came into that feeling of being scared of playing.
"At half-time I said there are a couple of good things, one that it is still 0-0 and second that it can't be much worse, we can lift up the tempo.
"Second half we were much better, in the last half an hour we were really good. We scored the goal and should have finished the game.
"It is a massive three points for us. Back-to-back wins, in this stadium, are very good considering the situation we were in."
Indeed, having also overcome Burnley 1-0 on Wednesday with Noble again on target at London Stadium, West Ham are only two points off the top half.
