Despite a rally by the Dragons in the last 20 minutes of the game, the hosts slipped to defeat against local rivals Cardiff Blues 17-22 in the Boxing Day clash at Rodney Parade.
Head Coach Bernard Jackman was left downhearted by the performance for the supporters who turned out in force for the sell out clash.
"We’re very disappointed," said Jackman. "We obviously showed some heart at the end, but we were pretty poor for the first hour and we expect a lot more from our players in terms of aggression, work rate and forcing the game on the opposition.
"We didn’t force the game and we let the Blues dictate. The bench showed an impact but we should have been better and we let people down tonight as we weren’t accurate enough and we need to fix it.
"We want to play in front of big crowds and be dominant at home, but today we just didn’t fire."
Despite finishing strongly to give Dragons fans hope of a late comeback, Jackman promised there would be some tough questions asked in training this week.
"We’ll review [the game] and get to the bottom of what led to a flat performance," he added.
"We weren’t good enough for the first 55 minutes and Cardiff Blues deserved to win. We lacked that intensity in the first half with 10 turnovers so we’ll have to ask questions about that.
"Our bench made a good impact today and maybe put their hand up to start against the Ospreys because the starting team didn’t do the job we wanted them to and that’s an opportunity missed for us.
"I think our fans respect that we showed a bit of character but certainly those first 55 minutes aren’t a good image of how we want to portray ourselves
"Whilst Cardiff Blues defended well, we’ll ask questions about our decision making, our ruck work where we were sloppy on the ground. If you are sloppy in those areas when it’s raining and you give cheap turnovers it’s very hard to win.
"We were really excited about getting a big crowd in and thankfully we showed some heart at the end which was important but certainly that wasn’t anywhere near where we want to be performance wise."
Towards the end of the game the Dragons were forced into a positional re-shuffle as Hallam Amos came off injured. With Angus O'Brien already on the park at fly half, Liam Belcher came on for the Wales international, causing changes amongst the forwards and Ben Roach moved into centre.
Jackman admitted the late change didnt affect the result and although he was yet to discover the full extent of Hallam's injury, there were some positives with other players soon expected back.
"Hallam came off and we had to mix things around a bit, I doubt he’ll be fit for the Ospreys at the weekend. Potentially Sam Beard will be back, but in January we’ll welcome back Zane, Harrison Keddie and in February we potentially get Lewis Evans back, but unfortunately most of the injuries were quite serious. Leon Brown is still nursing his concussion."
Next up the Dragons face Ospreys on New Year's Eve at Rodney Parade, with Bernard pragmatic about his side's approach to the second derby in five days.
"There’s very little time to stew on it, we’ve just got to fix it. We need to play for 80 minutes against the Ospreys."
