Andrew Trimble said last night Ulster were fed up being regarded as “nearly men.”

Ulster are still without a win after two rounds of the Magners League campaign with just two losing bonus points to show for their efforts.

Narrow defeats to Llanelli Scarlets and away at Cardiff Blues on Friday night has represented a disappointing start to the new season after a summer of much change both on and off the field as part of coach Matt Williams’ revolution.

The visit of Newport Gwent Dragons, who copped a 50-point mauling by an under-strength Munster side in Cork last Sunday, to Ravenhill on Friday night (kick-off 7.30pm) represents a golden opportunity for Ulster to finally get their campaign up and running. And according to Trimble, the squad are ready to take out their frustrations on the Welsh region on Friday night.

“We had a pretty frustrating weekend, everyone was very disappointed at the Cardiff defeat and we were very hard on ourselves on Monday morning,” said Trimble.

“And how we have handled this week is a sign of how we have matured as a squad. Maybe last season we would have come in on Monday morning and said ‘guys’, we have done well, we got within a point of Cardiff’.

“But we are just sick of that really. We are fed up with coming in that we are doing alright, doing this well and let’s improve this.

“We have to learn to close out games. We are not happy just to produce big performances, we want to get results now.”

Memories of Ulster’s Celtic League winning campaign two seasons ago, when Mark McCall’s side went on a 10-match unbeaten run to claim the title on the last night of the season are still fresh in Trimble’s memory.

And the Ireland wing says the side must rekindle that resilient spirit in time for Friday night having allowed a match-winning situation to slip from their hands at the Arms Park in last Friday’s 16-15 defeat.

“I remember a couple of years ago (during the Celtic League winning campaign) when we never lost and always came through in tight games,” added Trimble.

“It is a mindset thing, and a maturity thing and is something we have worked really hard on over the last couple of days to make sure we know exactly what we are doing when we get into certain areas in the pitch or certain situations in the game.

“When you take the Dragons through a few phases, they struggle and that is something we are going to look to do.”

Meanwhile Dragons coach Paul Turner, under pressure after three defeats from three, has named a 25-man squad for the trip to Belfast.

And Turner insisted the Dragons are determined to put in a huge performance after a disappointing start.

The Dragons coach has noted that Ulster have slipped to four successive defeats if the losing streak includes the poor finish to last season’s campaign, with three of those games being played at Ravenhill.

“Ravenhill is always an exciting and vibrant place to play and the boys are looking forward to heading to Belfast tomorrow,” said Turner.

“The manner in which we leaked points last weekend against Munster was disappointing and this has been addressed in preparation for yet another away trip.

“The team were buoyed by a superb first half performance against the Scarlets only last week and we need to concentrate on those positives going into this fixture.”

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