Glasgow 25 Ulster 18:Ulster did little to aid their quest to finish as the third Irish side involved in next season's Heineken Cup when losiong by seven to Glasgow Warriors at Firhill.
The losing bonus-point leaves them five ahead of the Galwaymen but with the latter having two games in hand and a meeting between the two yet to come, there was little to cheer the Ravenhill faithful yet again.
The performance, in truth, was a marked improvement on recent outings but they were undone by Scotland outhalf Dan Parks, who converted Graeme Morrison’s try, kicked two penalties and no fewer than four drop goals.
Ulster’s scores came from Paul Marshall and Jamie Smith tries, while Ian Humphreys converted one and notched two penalties, but it wasn't enough to prevent a fourt consecutive defeat.
Kevin Tkachuk and John Beattie put Glasgow within sniffing distance of the Ulster line in the opening minutes, but it was the visitors who put the first points on the board.
Ulster scrum-half Marshall spotted the ball on the fringe of a ruck and his three hacks took the ball 80 yards before he touched down.
It took Glasgow 10 minutes to get their heads back up but finally a 50-metre break by Max Evans gave them their first threatening position and, when Ulster offended, Parks slotted the penalty.
That should have lifted Glasgow but they were getting nowhere against an Ulster defence which took full advantage of referee Peter Allan’s lenient interpretation of the offside law.
After a Fergus Thomson break, another spilled ball saw Ulster hack again to the Glasgow line and only desperate cover kept the home line intact.
Parks had a chance to put the home team ahead but his penalty drifted wide and, with Chris Henry and David Pollock keeping Glasgow quiet round the fringes, the game limped to half-time with Ulster two points up.
Glasgow’s frustration manifested itself in a bust-up between Al Kellock and Chris Henry at the start of the second half before the Scottish side found a more positive direction in which to channel their energies.
Colin Shaw and Bernie Stortoni got Glasgow into the red zone and Parks put them ahead with his first drop-goal.
Ulster hit back immediately with a Humphreys penalty and stretched their lead to five points after Moray Low was punished for illegal handling.
Stortoni again got in among the Ulster defence and won the penalty for Parks to pull the margin back to two points and again it was the full-back who surged into the heart of the Ulster defence to set up Parks for drop-goal number two.
John Beattie and Dougie Hall then combined to put Morrison away and the big centre burst through two tackles to go over and give Parks the simplest of conversions.
Ulster were now tiring, their second match in four days clearly taking its toll. It was all they could do to keep Glasgow at bay but they could not prevent Parks dropping two more goals.
They produced a late push which saw Simon Danielli put Smith over for a final try, with Humphreys’ conversion salvaging what could be a vital bonus point for Ulster.