Gavin Evans celebrates the try that sealed the Blues' win
Cardiff Blues gave their Magners League play-off hopes a boost with victory over Newport Gwent Dragons, who claimed a losing bonus point at Rodney Parade.
The game was marred by a dreadful ankle injury suffered by home full-back Martyn Thomas in the second-half.
Dragons prop Ben Castle claimed his side's try with James Arlidge kicking three penalties.
Blues' Ceri Sweeney scored a crucial try, Gavin Evans also touching down and Ben Blair's boot adding 10 points.
Victory gave the Blues their seventh successive away triumph as they became only the second team to win at the Dragons' home in the league this season.
The Dragons also remain in with a play-off chance, but their hopes are slim after this defeat.
But Glasgow's Friday night 30-6 win over Leinster leaves the Blues and Dragons hoping for slip-ups elsewhere to help lift them into the competition's inaugural play-offs.
The opening period was everything the packed stadium hoped for - despite both sides missing injured front-liners, it was full of passion, skill and endeavour.
The hosts came out on top in that period, their hustle and bustle, not to mention their skill levels giving Paul Turner's side the edge for a deserved 8-3 half-time leave.
Visiting Wales and British and Irish Lions wing Leigh Halfpenny missed the game's first scoring opportunity, his long-range penalty drifting wide in the second minute.
When Blues' skipper Paul Tito failed to roll away from a breakdown home fly-half James Arlidge kicked the game's first points.
Dragons centre Tom Riley's intelligent touch-finder led to nothing productive for the hosts and a Blair break ended with Sweeney failing to take what could have been a scoring pass.
The Dragons then showed the Blues how it should be done when Riley and Ashley Smith threatened on the right before the ball swung back across field where flanker Gavin Thomas took Richard Fussell's pass off his toes.
Thomas then sent out a superb long pass to prop Ben Castle who went over for the opening try, but Arlidge could not convert.
Blair put the Blues on the scoreboard with his 29th-minute penalty, but the visitors then lost number eight Andy Powell with an ankle injury, which he rapidly declared to Scrum V as a calf injury from which he would recover in two weeks.
Blair missed penalties in the 48th and 51st minutes, but after calming his nerves with a successful shot in the 53rd, the Blues took the initiative.
Dragons full-back Martyn Thomas failed to gather Sweeney's high kick and the fly-half gathered to beat two more defenders for Blair to convert.
Sweeney enjoys winning return
That 60th-minute try was followed from the restart by a spectacular effort, Leigh Halfpenny's breathtaking touchline run ending with replacement centre Gavin Evans crossing for Blair to convert.
Rival hookers Tom Willis - the Dragons' captain - and Rhys Thomas' bust up cost them 10 minutes in the sin-bin and in their absence Thomas suffered his injury.
The full-back made ground in a promising home attack, but as his predicament became clear play was stopped as Thomas received treatment before being stretchered off and taken to hospital to undergo surgery.
Thomas and Powell were not the only injury victim of the night, as home centre Ashley Smith (ankle) and Blues centre Jamie Roberts (knee) and scrum-half Richie Rees (ankle) also departed early.
A superb tackle by replacement Blues scrum-half Lloyd Williams, with the help of Man-of-the-Match Maama Molitika, on another replacement, Adam Hughes, denied the Dragons once more.
And the home fans were calling foul after Gavin Evans held back Rhodri Gomer-Davies after the visiting defence had been split by an Arlidge pass. Evans also claimed possession to clear and his offence went unpunished.
But the hosts were at least able to claim a losing bonus point as Arlidge kicked a penalty to end the contest.
Dragons boss Paul Turner: "I'm a little bit despondent. A couple of decisions went well against us - in the first half with advantage over - really killed us and the bust up the middle in the second half which was a yellow card and a possible try under the sticks and everybody in the ground saw it and the officials and two touch judges just missed it.
"So they were crucial moments and one of Ceri (Sweeney's) famous slices has gone and killed us.
"But in fairness we didn't clear our lines well enough in that crucial period in the first 20 minutes of the second half.
"We had ample opportunities to do that and we've come up short on that. The game went from us in a crucial five-minute period.
Blues boss Dai Young: "First half we were losing the tackle area. They were putting a lot of numbers in there, slowing the ball down.
"We failed to get much go-forward first-half so we talked about putting extra numbers in there, which would give us a bit of go-forward and obviously then if we can get some go-forward we can get behind them, which proved to be the case.
"I was really pleased with the way the boys really fronted up because it was a really tough encounter and that tackle area was a real mess for both teams and both teams had to front up and I was really pleased with the way our forwards fronted up second-half.
"The most important thing is coming here and winning. There's been a lot of talk about the Dragons this season and they've had an excellent season - you can't take that away from them.
"But we're a proud bunch and wanted to come here and win first and foremost.
"If we're lucky enough to get into the play-offs, great, but it's a long-shot because it's pretty much out of our hands.
"We've got to rely on people in front of us to lose."
Newport-Gwent Dragons: M Thomas; Harries, Riley, Smith, Fussell; Arlidge, W Evans; Gustafson, Willis, Castle, Sidoli, MacDonald, Coombs, G Thomas, Falatau. Replacements: Hughes for M Thomas (73), Gomer-Davies for Smith (48), Hall for Gustafson (40), Burns for Willis (71), L Evans for Falatau (57). Not Used: Harris, Walker.
Cardiff Blues: Blair; Halfpenny, Roberts, Hewitt, Czekaj; Sweeney, Rees; Yapp, Thomas, Andrews, Davies, Tito, Molitika, Warburton, A Powell. Replacements: Evans for Roberts (54), L Williams for Rees (62), G Williams for Thomas (71), Filise for Andrews (50), Jones for Tito (62), Pretorius for A Powell (35).Not Used: Flanagan.
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