LUKE Charteris claims Newport Gwent Dragons will have no fears about going to Ravenhill on Friday for their hastily rearranged Magners League game against Ulster despite Sunday's heavy defeat by Gloucester.

For the second time in recent weeks the Dragons have to put up with a short turnaround.

Last month they were in Italy on the Sunday to face Aironi, returned the next day and had to fly to Scotland on the Thursday to face Glasgow the next day, this time they were at Gloucester on Sunday and now have to meet Ulster on Friday.

It will be their fifth succcessive away game which is a big ask for any team, but Charteris, who led the side at Kingsholm, remains undaunted.

"We've done pretty well there in the past and we've got to put a performance in," he said referring to the last two seasons, drawing 22-22 at Ravenhill 12 months ago after winning there 16-14 the year before.

"It's a quick turnaround again and Ulster are a good team so it's going to be tough but we've got to show character.

"We know what let us down against Gloucester, we made too many individual errors, we didn't keep hold of the ball, we got turned over in contact and made handling mistakes.

It's up to us to put it right now, we've got a run of home games after this one which will give us a good chance of climbing the table.

“We haven't become a bad team overnight, the boys are understandably a bit down but we've just got to take the loss and push on. We mustn't let this affect our momentum, Gloucester are a good team but we gifted them the ball and they took their chances well."

Charteris had a lot of praise for the many Dragons fans who were at Kingsholm. "It didn't feel like an away game, the atmosphere and the noise was almost better than at Rodney Parade, it's just a pity we didn't repay them," he said. Acting head coach Darren Edwards, expected to be given the job full time in the near future, added, "Ulster play a tough brand of rugby and it's going to be difficult to lift the players, but we'll play it game by game. Five of our last six league matches are at home.

"There is still potential in this side, but collectively we need to put it together and become a polished outfit like Gloucester." Lock Rob Sidoli has had an operation on a dislocated elbow this week and will be out for the rest of the season, but fellow lock Scott Morgan (also elbow) and centre Ashley Smith (shoulder) could be back in a few weeks.

Flanker Gavin Thomas is close to a return after a nasty mouth injury.