The Glasgow Warriors came agonisingly close to securing their first win of the season against the reigning Magners League champions at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon.

It took the Warriors a good 25 minutes to get up to speed as they gave the Ospreys enough time to gather an 11 point lead through a Shaun Connor drop goal, a Shaun Connor penalty and a Lee Byrne try.

Glasgow’s nerves were settled through the boot of Colin Gregor before Sam Pinder crossed the line two minutes later.

A hole was worked open by nice short passing and the initial break came from Moray Low, and as Stevie Swindall powered forward, his offload to Pinder sent the scrum-half between the posts. Gregor converted to separate the sides by a single point.

A further penalty from the boot of Gregor brought the Warriors into the lead, but it wasn’t long until the Ospreys replied.

Justin Marshall popped the ball inside for Ospreys captain Filo Tiatia who gathered the ball at pace. Andrew Bishop took the ball into contact, from where the Ospreys looked like they were going to throw this scoring opportunity away. However, it was Byrne who spun out of the eventual tackle to go over for his second try. Connor converted before adding a drop goal with the last play of the half.

Glasgow continued to claw back in the second half, again through a Gregor penalty.

Moments later, with a quick tap 15 metres inside their own half, Glasgow sparked back into life. The tap executed by Pinder sent Hefin O’Hare up-field before he passed to Gibson. Johnnie Beattie picked the ball up from the back of the ruck and powered forward, staying strong to offload to Colin Shaw. Shaw’s touch down over the line was brought back as the referee had deemed Beattie’s offload to have been forward. It was later proven that the knock-on came from an Ospreys hand.

Shaw got his just rewards in the 54th minute as he burned his opposite man up the right flank to cross for the score. Gregor converted.

Just after the hour mark, the Ospreys pulled away as stand-off Shaun Connor slotted three penalties in quick succession to broaden the gap to seven points.

In the last minute of the game, a wild pass from Pinder wasn’t collected by Stortoni and Tiatia sent replacement Ben Lewis over for the score. Connor converted.

Ospreys: Lee Byrne; Stefan Terblanche, Andrew Bishop, Gavin Henson, Jonathan Vaughton; Shaun Connor, Justin Marshall; Paul James, Barry Williams, Cai Griffiths, Brent Cockbain, Andy Lloyd, Steve Tandy, Filo Tiatia CAPTAIN
Substitutes: Aled Brew for Terblanche (57 mins), Andrew Millward for James (58 mins), Lyndon Bateman for Lloyd (60 mins), Richard Hibbard for Williams (62 mins), Ben Lewis for Smith (68 mins), Martin Roberts for Marshall (71 mins), Gareth Owen for Connor (80 mins)

Glasgow Warriors: Bernardo Stortoni; Colin Shaw, Graeme Morrison, Daryl Gibson; Hefin O’Hare; Colin Gregor, Sam Pinder; Michael Collins, Eric Milligan, Moray Low, Andy Newman, Alastair Kellock CAPTAIN, Stevie Swindall, James Eddie, Johnnie Beattie
Substitutes: Dan Turner for Newman (3 mins), for Turner (13 mins) for Newman (68mins), Ed Kalman for Collins (40 mins), Richie Vernon for Eddie (57 mins), Max Evans for O’Hare (58 mins), Pat McArthur for Milligan (68 mins), Scott Barrow for Gibson (71 mins), Calum Forrester for Swindall (76 mins)

Referee: Colin Stanley