Pool Two/ Ulster 8 Ospreys 16: Another defeat, indeed a third in a row at Ravenhill, yet Ulster salvaged some pride against the Ospreys last night.
The visitors, who had romped to a seven-try win in Swansea last week, found the going much more difficult.
The Ospreys were worthy of their win, but never came close to scoring the four tries they needed to keep pace with the pool leaders, Gloucester.
Even when Ulster had to spend 20 minutes of the second half down to 14 men following yellow cards for Ryan Caldwell and then Carlo Del Fava, they gave the visitors plenty of nervous moments, with Tommy Bowe the chief danger man.
A second-half try by Justin Marshall and three penalties by James Hook, who also added a conversion, was enough to grind out the win.
Ulster had gone into the lead at the break thanks to a superb try by Simon Danielli and a Niall O'Connor penalty.
Ulster opened in bright fashion, with Bowe counterattacking from his 22 and O'Connor, the former Ireland under-20 outhalf, making his first European Cup start, kicking superbly out of hand.
But they were unable to rely on their lineout, and the slick opening never looked like yielding reward, and when Ospreys outhalf Hook landed two penalties in as many minutes, the seeds of doubt had already been planted in the home side's fragile psyches.
Yet the Ospreys' hopes of building on their solid platform in their desperate bid to leave Belfast with a bonus point as well as the win still faced a considerable resistance.
O'Connor landed a penalty to cut the deficit in the 17th minute, and although the Ospreys managed to break the first-up defence on numerous occasions, with Marshall probing the fringes superbly, Ulster managed to repel all that was thrown at them.
And, as the Ospreys' frustrations grew, Ulster grabbed the lead when Danielli took full advantage of poor defending to race over in the corner for the game's opening try in the 36th minute.
The Ospreys looked to have moved up the gears again at the start of the second period, but in their over-elaborated efforts to break down the Ulster defence they coughed up the ball four times in quick succession.
But Marshall made no mistake when he glided over from a planned lineout move to restore the Osprey's lead with a 51st-minute try.
A conversion by Hook and a penalty moments later as the Ulster lock Caldwell was sent to the sinbin opened up a sizeable lead of eight points.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 12 mins: J Hook pen, 0-3; 15: Hook pen, 0-6; 17: N O'Connor pen, 3-6; 37: S Danielli try, 8-6; 51: J Marshall try, Hook con, 8-13; 56: Hook pen, 8-16.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, S Danielli; N O'Connor (P Wallace 56 mins), K Campbell (I Boss 56 mins); B Young, R Best, D Fitzpatrick (T Court 73 mins); J Harrison (C Del Fava 67 mins), R Caldwell; N Best, K Dawson (D Pollock 62 mins), M McCullough.
OSPREYS: L Byrne; N Walker, M Taylor, S Parker, S Williams; J Hook, J Marshall (M Phillips 73 mins); D Jones (P James 74 mins), H Bennett (R Hibbard 74 mins), A Jones; AW Jones, I Evans; J Thomas, M Holah, F Tiatia.
Referee: M Changleng(SRU).
