WE played ourselves into defeat, said a disappointed Newport Gwent Dragons coach Paul Turner after Friday night's shock Magners League home defeat by bottom team Connacht.

It was the first time for Connacht to beat the Dragons at Rodney Parade and it was their first success in Wales for nearly four years.

It means the Dragons have now gone six games without winning, losing five and drawing the other, and with two matches against the Ospreys and two against Leinster to come the Dragons could even struggle to make the Heineken Cup play-off, just five points ahead of Connacht though with two games in hand.

"We played some good stuff out there and the players put in plenty of effort, but I lost count of the number of chances we had to win the game," said Turner.

"It's happened before and you could see it happening again," he added after the Dragons dominated the second half but failed to score and then suffered the pain of seeing Connacht snatch victory in injury time.

"Not for the first time we couldn't finish it off," said Turner. "If you look back at the Gloucester, Edinburgh and Glasgow games here and now this one they are all similar, it's that inability to close the game out.

"There must have been six or seven opportunities to score, but we've played ourselves into defeat. I'm speechless and words fail me really."

Turner is already looking ahead to next season, even more after this setback.

"We're looking to change the make-up of the side next season, though some guys gave their all tonight," he said.

"We'll do a lot of soul searching after this, but it's why I've been away quite a bit," he added referring to his two visits to New Zealand and the likely arrival of three or four players from Down Under next season.

"But it's going to be difficult now," he admitted. "We've got four games against two of the best sides in Europe, though we did show we can play a bit."