Director of Rugby Phil Davies admitted he was disappointed to leave Ravenhill empty-handed - as Blues produced a committed display before losing out 39-21 to Ulster Rugby in the RaboDirect PRO12.
Richard Smith and Robin Copeland crossed for tries in Belfast as Blues showed plenty of character throughout and twice stormed back into contention.
But it was the Irish side who eventually ran out bonus point winners in the final quarter to extend their unbeaten run to six games.
“It’s disappointing to come here and score 21 points and not take anything back with us,” he said. “It’s not an easy place to come; it’s a new fantastic stadium with a great atmosphere.
“It was about us coming here tonight and fronting up and producing a performance full of endeavour, which we did.
“But we weren’t accurate enough to go away with anything, which is disappointing when you think of the effort, commitment and physicality we put in.
“Our driving game went well. The pack went well and after we had a few creaky scrums but sorted that out.
“We drove and got a good score, we also showed character when down to 14 men after Robin (Copeland) was yellow carded in a strange decision.
“The players showed a lot of character to play from deep at the end, but it wasn’t enough against a strong defence and they got a couple of tries late on which lop-sided the score line a little,” he added.
“What we are going through is part of the growing pains of this team. As we have said before, we have had a massive amount of change and it is about getting consistency.
“In parts of the game we are very consistent. If we can start building that over 80 minutes we can start winning more games than we are losing.
“It is frustrating. You can’t fault the effort of the players, but we need more accuracy and more clinical play.”