Tries from James Arlidge, Rory Sidey and Richard Fussell guided the Newport Gwent Dragons to what was only their second away win in 12 months of rugby as they accounted for Glasgow Warriors in a lively encounter at Firhill.

The Dragons’ victory made it five wins in their last five visits to Glasgow and was only the second Magners League success for an away team at Firhill in the past 12 months – the Ospreys were also victorious there in September.

The Dragons came into this game with eight defeats in their last nine outings but they travelled with confidence, given their past victories in the Scottish city and what coach Paul Turner termed a ‘positive’ Christmas.

They beat the Ospreys at home on December 19 and with a bit of luck, they might have overturned both Cardiff and the Scarlets in their most recent games.

For their renewal of rilvaries with Glasgow, they welcomed back James Arlidge, who missed the Scarlets tie due to the birth of his first child, and the Japanese international was quite instrumental in the win as he tallied up 15 points.

Glasgow, who gained revenge on Scottish foes Edinburgh last weekend, made one change to their side with Opeta Palepoi replacing the injured Tim Barker in the second row.

Given the tightness of the Magners League table currently, a bonus point victory over the Dragons would have been enough to vault Sean Lineen’s charges into second place but the game did not go to plan for them.

Glasgow made the better start however, with number 10 Dan Parks converting a first minute penalty after his forwards had retrieved the kick-off and a Graeme Morrison burst ended with Rory Sidey being penalised for a ruck offence.

On 9 minutes, the Dragons lost their fly-half Shaun Connor to injury and Arlidge was introduced, making an immediate impact by slamming over the levelling penalty.

Glasgow also had to made an early switch as they lost Palepoi temporarily to a finger injury and Dan Turner came on to make his 100th appearance for the club.

The New Zealand-born Arlidge increased his influence in the 20th minute when he burst through from 60 metres out for an opportunist try, after gathering a careless pass from Glasgow’s Bernardo Stortoni.

Leaking that seven-pointer was quite a blow to the hosts as minutes earlier, they had looked primed to unlock the Dragons defence.

John Barclay linked with Sam Pinder off the back off a lineout and had Glasgow shown a bit more precision in their follow-up attacking, Hefin O’Hare might have been able to slip over in the corner for a try.

But Glasgow did get it right on the half-hour mark when the elusive Thom Evans thundered through to collect a kick ahead from Morrison and cross the whitewash for his sixth try of the league campaign.

Parks could not add the conversion and the scores were coming thick and fast, up to half-time, as Richard Fussell, having advanced forward off a Jason Tovey chip, offloaded for centre Sidey to spear through a gap and make the line.

Arlidge’s missed conversion was followed by a penalty success for Parks, which closed out the half and edged Glasgow closer at 15-11.

However, the Dragons shot further ahead on 52 minutes when Fussell grabbed a seven-pointer to give his side a ‘double scores’ lead.

The left winger joined Evans at the top of the league’s try-scoring charts, touching down in the corner after a sweeping move that had begun with Gareth Wyatt breaking through the midfield cover.

Parks ensured a very competitive final quarter as he kicked two further penalties and landed a drop goal.

In reply, Arlidge notched a 64th minute penalty and not even the late sin-binning of centre Rhodri Gomer Davies could deter the Dragons as they collected a most welcome four points.

Glasgow could not batter down the visitors’ defiant defence and a losing bonus point was of little consolation to Lineen afterwards.

"I’m completely and utterly gutted. We didn’t play to the game-plan in the first half and we showed a lack of overall composure," said the Glasgow boss.

"It was a bad day at the office. The game-plan was really simple, but all of a sudden we became the Harlem Globetrotters.

"We never tried any of that in training during the week. Conceding two set-piece tries is clearly not good enough."