Everton boss Roberto Martinez conceded his side were guilty of too many individual errors as they saw their recent revival brought to a juddering halt with a 3-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Romelu Lukaku's ninth-minute opener was cancelled out by Mile Jedinak's penalty after Tim Howard felled James McArthur, with the Toffees goalkeeper then failing to reach a Martin Kelly cross to gift Fraizer Campbell a simple goal.
Leon Osman's mistake then allowed Jason Puncheon to set up the impressive Yannick Bolasie for Palace's third, and though Leighton Baines struck late on to set up a tense finale at Goodison Park, Martinez admitted his side's "uncharacteristic" slips are costing them valuable points.
"We wanted to start sharp and to be bright with everything and for the first 15 minutes we looked fresh and scored a very good goal," he said.
"But we didn't really have that drive about us to score a second goal and if we had done so in that period then the game is over.
"The penalty was an incredible reward for Palace and from then on the mental change allowed Palace to have a lot of belief and to change the game.
"It was very uncharacteristic of us to concede three goals with three errors, but even then the character was incredible and we almost managed to get something out of the game."
Everton's busy schedule is set to continue with a Capital One Cup trip to Swansea on Tuesday before next week's Merseyside derby against Liverpool, and Martinez acknowledged the importance of getting back to winning ways.
"It is a really busy period and we want to make sure we take advantage of it,'' the Spaniard said. "There is a real competition for places and we need everyone to be ready. Those games are going to be vital to see how well we can progress."
Neil Warnock, meanwhile, praised the unpredictable flair of Bolasie after the winger inspired the Eagles to claim their first Premier League win of the season.
Bolasie's tireless running helped haul his side back into the game and he capped a fine display by scoring what turned out to be the winner to seal the victory at Goodison Park.
Warnock, who brought Bolasie back into his starting lineup in place of Wilfred Zaha, said: "I've seen Yannick for a long time now and he always contributes and is a threat.
"The problem with him is he doesn't know what he's going to do next so the defenders have got no chance. He was very positive today and he covered a lot of ground."
Warnock is still in the process of evaluating his squad after replacing Tony Pulis as manager but believes he has seen enough in his eight games in charge to date to inspire plenty of confidence.
"This gives everyone a lot of belief. We should have won the other two games against Newcastle and Burnley and we were disappointed not to," he added.
"I thought we deserved to win it today. We were apprehensive in the first 20 minutes and gave them a bit too much respect but from that moment we grew into the game and we said it was a game we could go on and try to win.
"What pleased me was that Everton are a good side and we had to hang in there at times and put our head in and make tackles and blocks, and I like that kind of football."