IT is a great time to be a Glasgow Warriors supporter.

Even though the team gave their fans a few anxious moments in their final game of the Guinness PRO12 regular season, when things did click they turned on the style and four tries not only made sure they finished the season top of the pile but, more importantly, confirmed they stay put for the play-off semi-final.

The real surprise was that after all that, they will find themselves facing the same opponents again, with Neil Doak, the Ulster coach, promising that it will be a very different team and performance that awaits the Scotstoun faithful for the rematch on Friday night.

He admitted that with a lot of niggles among his squad, he had taken a calculated gamble in resting most of his key players and expects most, if not all, to return to action for this week's game. For last weekend, the arithmetic showed they needed some highly improbable results to have a hope of a home semi-final themselves, so it made a lot more sense to keep his powder dry and make sure it is a fresh group of players who take to the same pitch in the same colours.

"We were competitive for 60 minutes on Saturday and had the intention that if other results were going our way we would offload the bench, but it didn't work out that way," said Doak. "In terms of personnel, we may change but not in attitude. We went aiming to win the game and will do again.

"There is pressure on all four teams. Everybody wants to get a home semi, everybody wants to get into the final, everybody wants to win the competition - us as much as anybody. There is pressure every year and it is no different this year though having the final at our home stadium means there is a little bit of added incentive for us.

"Come Friday, we will be looking for a good performance and a turn around in the result. On our day, we can beat anybody. We have got to make sure we do the simple things well. Glasgow are a quality side and if you give them opportunities they can get points on the board quickly."

Doak has a point in both sides of the equation. He has a better team to wheel out, though there are more injury doubts than he is happy with, and the players have reminded themselves of what it is like to play at Scotstoun in front of 10,000 Scots fans. At the same time, they were also reminded just how lethal Glasgow can be when they start to find a little bit of space.

Down wind and with sporadic showers making handling tricky, it was Ulster who controlled the first half with Chris Henry, the captain and flanker, grabbing the only try added to the conversion and penalty from Ian Humphreys, the fly half. All Glasgow could manage in reply was a couple of penalties from Finn Russell, their fly half.

It all spun on a single moment of genius from Stuart Hogg, creating and finishing a solo score that not only lit up the stadium but inspired his team to turn on their A-game.

"It was a bit of inspiration out of nothing, an unbelievable try and that gave us all a bit of belief, we upped the tempo and the accuracy from there," said Richie Vernon - who had his own part to play in the unfolding drama 18 minutes later.

Firstly, it was up to Russell to provided the next bit of momentum with two contrasting score, his first tries in Glasgow colours. The first was more of a strength effort - "That burger and chips I had before the game paid off, gave me the weight to get there," he joked afterwards - the second a classic piece of fly half deception to open the gap and glide through.

"Once we got a second try, we had 20 minutes to go and needed two more tries - we were quite confident on the pitch," said Vernon, whose contribution was latching onto a short ball from Ryan Wilson, to cut through and find the space opened ahead of him. "It felt like about 50 yards but I think it was only about 10."

"I got through and looked up and realised the 15 was not covering across and thought to myself 'there is a race on here.' It was a great ball from Ryan Wilson to have put me through and I am just glad I made it. The celebration afterwards was a great feeling, I was just mobbed, a bit like a football celebration.

"We were not too disappointed with the first half, we knew we would get chances to play, and we did. We are just happy to have that home semi-final. Last year the atmosphere was unbelievable and we put in a great performance. We know Ulster will come back fancying their chances and it will be a great occasion. We will need to be more accurate and take the chances even better than we did in this game."

It was the score that could make Glasgow's season. Famously, no away team has ever won an away semi final, so they will be optimistic they can keep that trend going to get to a final against either Munster or the Ospreys, who meet at Thomond Park, then they can look back at Hogg's inspiration and Venon's finish as the moments it all came right.

Scorers: Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Hogg (54), Russell (59, 70), Vernon (72). Cons: Russell 3. Pens: Russell (5, 35)

Ulster: Try: Henry (29). Con: Humphreys. Pen: Humphreys (36) Scoring sequence (Glasgow Warriors first): 3-0, 3-7, 6-7, 6-10 (half time), 11-10, 18-10, 25-10, 32-10.

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg (P Murchie, 73); T Seymour, R Vernon, P Horne (D Weir, 75), S Lamont (H Pyrgos, 51); F Russell, N Matawalu; R Grant (G Reid, 51), D Hall (P MacArthur, 51), R de Klerk (M Cusack, 51), J Gray (sin bin: 28-38), A Kellock (C) (L Nakarawa, 60), J Strauss, C Fusaro (R Wilson, 18-28, 51), A Ashe.

Ulster: L Ludik; R Scholes, S Arnold (R Pienaar, 73), S McCloskey (T Bowe, 63), M Allen (T Bowe, 10-20); I Humphreys (P Jackson, 49-55, 60), P Marshall: A Warwick (sin bin: 65-75), R Herring, R Lutton (B Ross, 60), L Stevenson, F van der Merwe (I Henderson, 19, R Wilson, 73), C Ross, C Henry (C) (I Henderson, 18-19, K McCall, 66-75), R Diack.