Newcastle Falcons boss Steve Diamond admitted his side were architects of their own downfall on Sunday as Dragons claimed a 22-14 win in EPCR Challenge Cup action.

Having begun the competition with two defeats, the director of rugby said: “It was similar to last weekend out in Pau, to be honest.

“It was two teams who had been struggling in their domestic leagues, and it was a game of fine margins.

“I thought Dragons played the conditions and controlled the game slightly better than we did, and it was a fair result.

“I was a bit disappointed because we’ve got one or two players who are talking the talk but not delivering on the message, and I’ll be having a quiet word with them in the week.

“In the first half we were technically okay but they scored an easy try because we weren’t working off the line in defence, and they were just going a metre at a time to get the score.

“They key moment was probably when Ben Redshaw made the break, if his offload goes to hand we score, but they intercepted it and went the length.

“It’s those fine margins that decide games, but I’m disappointed because we’d talked so much about the importance of keeping the winning run going at home. We didn’t have that same mentality for some reason, but we’ve got Bath, Northampton and Harlequins as our next three games, so we’ll have to be on it.

“We were just a little bit lacklustre for some reason. We were 5% off in every area, and this team has to be 100% on it to get the win.”

Refusing to use his long injury list as mitigation for the performance, Diamond said: “Every team has injuries and it’s always been the way, so I’m not going to sit and complain about it.

“Richard Palframan pulled out last minute but he’ll be okay for next week, and I thought the two young props [Micky Rewcastle and Callum Hancock] came in and did well. They’re getting lots of exposure, which is valuable for them, and every team has injuries, so I don’t use it as an excuse.

“We’ve just got to look at ourselves, and how we can be better. Dragons deserved the win today and I’ve got no complaints with the result, but we’ll be better on Saturday against Bath.”

With a bumper festive crowd set to descend on Kingston Park as the Falcons go for their third successive Premiership home win, their director of rugby said: “They’ll be coming up here fully loaded after resting a number of guys for their European game, and that’s a sign of the respect that teams are now showing to us, because they know how tough we can be up here.

“Today wasn’t up to the levels we expect of ourselves, but we’ll give the lads two days off to refresh like we always do, and then rip into it.”