HOME is where Gregor Townsend's heart is after his Glasgow Warriors clinched a play-off place for the fourth season in a row.

A bonus point 31-13 victory away to Connacht in Galway guaranteed them a place in the last four showdown with just two games left to play.

It keeps the Scotstoun club riding high in the Guinness PRO12 on top spot, with Munster two behind, Ulster three back and Ospreys four away in fourth.

More importantly for Townsend's team, it means they are a step closer to securing a home play-off semi-final, which could become crucial in the final shake up.

It was an advantage which Glasgow made full use of last season when a packed house roared their Warriors on to a 16-15 victory against Munster.

Townsend is already eyeing up a repeat at their own patch and he reckons securing that all-important Scotstoun tie could be just one game away.

"I'd like to congratulate the players on the fantastic effort to reach their fourth semi-final in a row," he said.

"To show consistency of being at the top four is difficult and the work the players have put in throughout the season is superb.

"It's a real squad effort and the next priority is to finish as high up the table as possible.

"A home semi-final would be amazing as it was a great event when we reached that stage last year and played Munster.

"I believe we have to win one more game, possibly two, depending on how other results go. We now have two weeks to prepare for the next challenge, which will be against the Ospreys."

While Townsend's mind may already be drifting to that trip to Wales a week on Friday, he will also be able to reflect with satisfaction at a professional job well done over in Ireland on Saturday.

Despite being behind early on, tries from Niko Matawalu (2), Tommy Seymour, Stuart Hogg and Adam Ashe took the visitors - who were captained by Jonny Gray for the first time - out of sight.

It was Glasgow's fourth game without defeat heading into their last two games, and Townsend told GlasgowWarriors.Org: "We were very pleased with the win and we had worked very hard pre-match on Connacht as we knew they would pose us a strong challenge.

"We made things difficult for ourselves at times, especially in terms of discipline as at one stage it was 9-1 in the penalty count and that's nowhere near good enough at this level.

"As result we had to defend in our half for a lot of the game and with 14 men on two occasions, but credit must go to the players for getting us through those periods of adversity.

"We probably led against the run of play in the first half as Connacht had controlled most of it.

"The last 20 minutes we worked really hard though and I believe we deserved the win. We are delighted that it became a bonus point win."

Reflecting on Gray's performance as skipper, he added: "Jonny Gray captained us for the first time and he would have learned a lot from the game as he had to speak to the referee quite a bit and we had to make a lot of adjustments during the game.

"He played really well which was good to see and we're pleased we got a victory on his first outing as captain."