Glasgow 25 - 18 Ulster: Dan Parks propels Glasgow towards the league play-offs with 20-point haul

But they again have to thank master kicker Dan Parks for their points. Time and again he got Glasgow out of jail with some typically-incisive kicking, including four dropped goals, which gave him a personal haul of 20 points. He left the field to a rousing reception with some five minutes left, to be replaced by the unlucky young understudy, Ruaridh Jackson – whose injury "jinx" struck again when he had to leave the field with an ankle knock after a mere five minutes.

This left the home side minus a recognised kicker and when, in the final minute, they were awarded a distinctly kickable penalty, head-on to the posts and only 25 metres out, there was a long discussion before Johnnie Beattie stepped up, only to miss.

The home side produced an error-strewn first-half display, all too often gifting hard-won ground via the simplest of mistakes.

They were deep inside the Ulster 22 on only three minutes when a communications break-down at a ruck allowed visiting scrum-half Paul Marshall to hack and chase the length of the park for the opening unconverted try.

Glasgow opened their account on 12 minutes, Parks converting the penalty which Max Evans' terrific break to the visiting 22 had created.

That concluded the scoring in a disappointing first half in which the home side's mistakes undid some splendid attacking play.

Referee Peter Allen, forced to take the match by travelling difficulties caused by the air space "lock-down", was the target of constant abuse from the home fans, who felt, perhaps with justification, that he was trying too hard to avoid accusations of home bias. Certainly his policing of the Ulster offside line was lax in the extreme, with several promising Glasgow thrusts off quick ruck ball foundering in the face of defenders who were upon the attackers with ridiculous speed.

Glasgow came charging out of the blocks after the break and Ulster's defence was sorely stretched with some excellent combination play, before Parks put his side ahead with a trademark dropped goal on 45 minutes.

But their lead lasted a mere four minutes before Ian Humphreys restored Ulster's lead, then increased it with back-to-back penalties awarded for ruck offences around the home 22.

Glasgow refused to buckle under these setbacks and Parks restored their lead with a penalty, followed by his second dropped goal of the night as the match moved into its final quarter.

Just after the hour the enterprising Glasgow play was finally rewarded with a try, Graeme Morrison sprinting on to a misplaced pass to wrong-foot the visiting defence and go over, with Parks converting.

Two more Parks dropped goals seemed to finally have killed off the visitors, before, in the final minute, Jamie Smith of Ulster broke through some insipid tackling down the right to narrow the deficit.

Glasgow certainly deserved to win, but they didn't half make things hard for themselves, particularly in the first half, before getting the reward which their determination, again exemplified by the fine form of Beattie, Kelly Brown and John Barclay in the back row, deserved.

They now await the arrival of Leinster next Friday for what promises to be a cracking match. But Sean Lineen and his coaching staff will spend this week stressing Glasgow's need to cut-out the unforced errors and to make possession and momentum count better than they managed in this match.

Scorers: Glasgow: Tries: Morrison. Conversions: Parks. Penalties: Parks (2). Drop goals: Parks (4).

Ulster: Tries: Marshall, Smith. Conversions: Humphreys (1). Penalties: Humphreys (2).

TEAMS

Glasgow: B Stortoni, C Shaw, M Evans, G Morrison, DTH van der Merwe, D Parks/R Jackson (73)/O'Hare (77), M McMillan/C Cusiter (49); K Tkachuk/E Kalman (72), F Thomson/D Hall (49), M Low, T Barker/D Turner (52), A Kellock (Capt), K Brown, J Barclay/C Forrester (70), J Beattie.

Ulster: S Danielli, A Trimble, D Cave, I Whitten, N Spence/ J Smith (71), I Humphreys, P Marshall/I Boss (65); T Court, A Kyriacou/N Brady (48), D Fitzpatrick/BJ Botha (48), E O'Donoghue/Tuohy (7-15 blood) , R Caldwell, C Henry (Capt)/Tuohy (64), David Pollock, R Diack/T Anderson (36). Replacements not used: N O'Connor.

Referee: Peter Allen (SRU).

Attendance: 3,766.