The Ulster Rugby band wagon has hit a hitch - but it is not a terminal concern.
That was the message from coach Mark Anscombe after an 10-9 defeat to Northampton Saints at Ravenhill that has blown Pool 4 wide open.
The result brought Ulster's 13-match winning run in all tournaments to an abrupt end but they are still five points clear at the top of Pool 4.
"Our destiny is still in our own hands," said Anscombe. "We're not relying on other teams to see how it goes, if we win our last two games we'll qualify. Not every team has that opportunity, we have and we need to take it.
"But it's sad because it's our first loss although we got beaten by a better team."We're still a good team and we'll bounce back.
"It happens and you've got to acknowledge it and respect it as they did well and deserved their victory. We've got to go back and look at what we need to do better.
"Our execution was poor and we suffered from it. They got 10 points up in the first 18 minutes. We held them out well but I think we created enough opportunities to score points and we weren't patient enough and didn't have enough composure at crucial times.
"We tried to force it and they brought a little more passion than us to start with. Their physicality at the start got them going. We weren't complacent but we were a little more passive early on and we created enough opportunities but we just weren't composed enough at crucial times and we didn't take our points when we had opportunities.
Saints boss Jim Mallinder was delighted to see his team bounce back form their hammering last Friday and singled out their pack for praise.
"We had the determination to put the last game right," Mallinder said. "We were bitterly disappointed with the first game and we got a lot of criticism from various places and I think as a team we were determined to put that right.
"The front five were outstanding. The set-piece went really well as did the breakdown. Last week we couldn't get any quick ball and we didn't get on the front foot at all. In this game from the start we were on the front foot with our forwards working really hard and we got some good width in our game."
