Head Coach Ceri Jones admitted a lack of accuracy at key times had cost Dragons as they lost out 28-15 to Ulster in an entertaining Guinness PRO14 clash at Rodney Parade.
Taine Basham and a penalty try grabbed the points for Dragons, but play-off chasing Ulster wrapped up maximum points to keep their top three dreams alive.
Jones praised his resilient team has they overcame the loss of captain Richard Hibbard in the warm-up and then Harri Keddie after 20 minutes.
However, he insisted Dragons should have secured more than they did if they had struck when opportunities arose.
“There was lots more energy than last week - but we lacked a bit of accuracy at times,” said Jones.
“I was disappointed in the first half when we failed to get the ball off the pitch and had to do double defensive sets. That really hurts us.
“We came back and showed good resilience throughout the game and it was really pleasing to see so many of our young players step up and give such big performances.
“Huw Taylor, Lennon Greggains, Taine Basham – these are people that we haven’t heard much from this year, but they have stepped up and done a job for us.
“But accuracy, whether that was handling errors or mistakes at the lineout, hurt us. That was also disrupted losing Hibbs (Richard Hibbard) in the warm-up.
“We could have been more accurate in what we did and could have got something out of this, because I thought the energy levels were where they needed to be.”
Ulster lost two men to the sin bin with ten minutes remaining as Dragons were awarded a penalty try.
But Jones believed his team then missed the opportunity to turn the screw.
“I was disappointed when they turned on the power and zip zagged up the field,” he said. “I know we had a lot of young players on, but we really should have banged them backwards and created some kind of turnover.
“We would have been right in the game at potentially 21-15 and we have an opportunity to go and try and steal the game.
“It’s something that is disappointing but given then personnel it is something hard to address, to a certain extent.”
Reflecting on the home campaign, Jones added: “Performances have been pretty strong since the Christmas period, with two blips against a strong Clermont team and last week over at Benetton.
“We have been pretty consistent with our levels of performances and hopefully, if we keep doing that, the results will come.
“We know the scale of the opposition we will face next (Ospreys). We hope to have some of our Wales contingent back for that and they can add to us.”
We came back and showed good resilience throughout the game and it was really pleasing to see so many of our young players step up and give such big performances...
