WARRIORS brushed off the loss of flanker Tyrone Holmes to a red card in the opening minute of the second half to move top of the Guinness PRO12.

Gregor Townsend's short-handed side ran in three tries after Holmes' departure to gain their first scoring bonus point of the campaign and claim revenge against the only side to beat them twice last season.

Head coach Townsend refused to dispute the sending-off - describing the incident as "reckless" - but was mystified as to why, with the game being broadcast on Sky and a big screen in the ground, a replay was not shown for referee David Wilkinson to make a decision himself.

Instead Tim Hayes, the Welsh television match official, made the call, leaving Wilkinson with no option.

Holmes was spotted apparently stamping on Dragons hooker T Rhys Thomas in a maul on the opposition 22. Townsend said his player had been attempting to force the Welshman to stop illegally holding a Glasgow shirt.

As can happen, however, the blow only seemed to add steel to the Warriors performance. After looking a shadow of the side that had reached last season's final while Holmes was on the field, they came good once he was back in the changing room to run away with the result.

"It shows the character within the squad," Townsend said. "He shouldn't have used his foot but I've seen referees say play on to something similar. The fact that the referee did not get to see it was disappointing."

Townsend added: "It was a really good win. To get a bonus point with 15 men would be an achievement, to do it with 14 was fantastic. I always felt that if we got our game going, managed to get it past five or six phases, then gaps would open up.

"The Dragons are a really tough team to play, but we were making smart decisions to kick in behind and were putting on real pressure. The scrum improved as the game went on and the bench came on and made a difference.

"We had some excellent individual performances, the second rows looked fitter and fitter as the game went on, the back three were dangerous and Alex Dunbar was awarded man of the match."

Even better, from Glasgow's point of view, the tries were all well constructed, unlike last week when fortune favoured them with turnovers at key moments.

The visitors led 13-3 at the interval, thanks to Dunbar's early converted try and penalties from Duncan Weir and Stuart Hogg. The first touchdown after the red card came quickly, No 8 Josh Strauss getting the final drive after most of the forwards and some of the backs had hammered at the home line.

Hogg came blind on a pre-planned move to put win Tommy Seymour, the wing on a race to the line for Glasgow's third try of the afternoon. That seemed to suck the enthusiasm out of the Dragons and Warriors spent the rest of the game camped in their half. With time running out the seven-man pack drove a line-out for lock Tim Swinson to claim the vital fourth try.

All of this had been a total contrast to the first half, even though it had started well for Glasgow. Quick ball off the top of their first line-out found Peter Horne in midfield and he got the ball moving forward and out to Dunbar who cut through for his try.

It was all so simple. Too simple, maybe, because the rest of the half was a feast of mistakes. True, Weir's conversion and penalty and Hogg's long-range contrib-ution stretched Glasgow's lead, but they could never hang on to the ball long enough to keep any serious pressure on their hosts.

What they could not do was find the kind of continuity that has been the hallmark of their play and with Dragons fly-half Angus O'Brien landing a simple kick mid-way through the half, Glasgow had to be satisfied with a 10-point lead at the break.

Once Holmes was off, the Dragons destroyed the Glasgow scrum to win a penalty. They then mounted their only serious attack of the game and won their reward with scrum-half Richie Rees being driven over from short range, but that was the end of their resistance as Glasgow took control.

Newport Gwent Dragons: H Amos; T Prydie, B John, D Jones (B Nightingale, 66), A Brew (A Hewitt, 70); A O'Brien, R Rees (L Jones, 70); B Stankovich, TR Thomas (E Dee, 56), L Fairbrother (sin bin: 40-50, D Way, 50-70), C Hill (M Screech, 63, H Gustafson, 66), R Landman (C), L Evans (D Way, 45-50, A Powell, 63), N Cudd, T Faletau.

Glasgow: S Hogg; T Seymour, A Dunbar, P Horne, D van der Merwe; D Weir, N Matawalu (H Pyrgos, 37); G Reid (A Allan, 63), K Bryce (F Brown, 51), E Murray (R de Klerk, 59 ), T Swinson, L Nakarawa, R Harley (J Eddie, 56), T Holmes (se nt off: 41), J Strauss (C) (A Ashe, 63).

Referee: D Wilkinson (Ireland)

Attendance: 5885