FUN and the Dragons haven’t exactly been bedfellows over recent seasons.

A few European highs – surprise wins at Stade Francais and Pau, the Cardiff Blues quarter-final in Newport and stunning Gloucester at Kingsholm – are pretty much all that we’ve been treated to.

There have been some individual highlights such as the progression of the Wales contingent of Cory Hill, Hallam Amos and Elliot Dee plus miraculous rise of Leon Brown and Aaron Wainwright to become Test players.

There’s been the odd laudable milestone, notably stalwart Lewis Evans surpassing Steve ‘Jabba’ Jones to become the Dragons’ record appearance holder, while Adam Warren’s achievement of starting all 30 games in 2015/16 was worthy of applause.

But there has been little reason to get carried away here; how nice would it be for that to change in the coming campaign?

We have just experienced a surge in churlishness courtesy of the World Cup in Russia with many folk (granted, much of it on social media) disappointed that England fans actually had some unexpected entertainment rather than ringing a phone-in to moan about pampered players not having enough passion.

ITV’s post-match analysis made for entertaining viewing after Gareth Southgate’s side had been knocked out by Croatia and both Roy Keane and Ian Wright had merit in their contrasting views.

The former was swift to point out that it was a missed opportunity and one that, for all the talk about young players learning, may not repeat itself when Germany, Brazil and other big beasts improve.

England lost to Belgium twice and Croatia, they beat Sweden comprehensively after dealing with Panama and Tunisia but needed penalties to get past Colombia. Cue more snorts of derision.

Yet to Keane’s left on the TV panel, Wright summed up the swing from English apathy to enjoyment and pride in their team.

England’s 2018 World Cup in football was similar to Wales’ 2011 World Cup in rugby when, four years after being dumped out by Fiji, Warren Gatland’s side lost to South Africa, France and Australia yet came home as heroes, treated to a special reception at the Senedd.

Southgate’s team, like Gatland's, will have to deal with an increase in expectations and after the free pass of this summer they will have to cope with demands to be challengers at the next Euros and in Qatar.

But a young side has connected with their supporters and shown some green shoots to provide some hope – a situation that we would love to see at Rodney Parade.

Sport is meant to be fun, creating memories and celebrating victories with your own little tribe. It's all relative and what is a routine win for Leinster would be one lauded by the Dragons.

In 2010 Paul Turner was named as Magners League coach of the year after leading the region to seventh out of 10 teams, winning eight and drawing one from 18 fixtures.

Those stats don't tell the entire story.

They were hugely competitive all season in the league (bar painfully heavy losses in Cardiff and Swansea) while they lost just twice at Rodney Parade and claimed the scalps of the all four play-off teams in Newport (Ospreys, Glasgow, Leinster and Munster).

Turner’s abrasive team put a few noses out of joint and gave reason for their fans to cheer.

I am confident the Dragons will have a much better season – it could hardly be worse than 2017/18 – and we can dream of European scalps of Clermont Auvergne or Northampton in the Challenge Cup group stages.

There will surely be more PRO14 successes and such wins will prompt Cardiff Blues, Ospreys and Scarlets supporters to have a chuckle at celebrations of achievements they have taken for granted, but frankly who would care?

After the horrible end to last season and the nightmare run of defeats, the Dragons must give supporters reason to be cheerful and proud.