When it mattered, Connacht produced the goods and their European hopes are still intact as they trounced 14-man Bristol Bears 27-10.
The four-try-to-one victory was easily their best performance of the season and saw Pete Wilkins' men leapfrog the visitors into fourth place in Pool 1.
With Saracens hosting Lyon tomorrow evening and needing just two points to move into the final qualification place, it is unlikely to be enough for Champions Cup rugby but the fifth-place team in the pools drops down to the round of 16 in the Challenge Cup.
But having lost their opening three games and taken just a point from those, progress to the secondary competition was a stated target and was duly accomplished on a freezing night at the newly christened Dexcom Stadium.
Returning former Connacht boss Pat Lam will have cause to be deeply unhappy with his side's showing and it became clear after the early exchanges that they’d rather be anywhere else than in a freezing stadium on the edge of the Atlantic.
Shayne Bolton, Jack Aungier, Caolin Blade and man of the match Andrew Smith scored the tries as Connacht, with just their second win in eight games, gave the home crowd a much-needed boost and feelgood factor until their next outing – against Cardiff away in mid-February in the URC.
As two of eight changes, the hosts recalled Ireland internationals Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham, who were rested for last weekend's defeat away to Lyon, while Blade and Tiernan O’Halloran returned from injury.
Bristol, meanwhile, had 2016 Connacht’s Pro12-winning half-back pairing Kieran Marmion and AJ MacGinty in their match-day squad.
They made five changes to the side surprisingly beaten at home by the Bulls last weekend, with England prop Kyle Sinckler and France international Virimi Vakatawa among those.
A couple of rousing turnovers, including a steal from Jarrad Butler just outside his own 22, paved the way for Connacht's first try.
Clean lineout ball was quickly spread to the backs and David Hawkshaw and O’Halloran combined to find Smith, who had come off his wing.
The former Sevens man took the right option, popping the ball off for Bolton to run in for the try.
Then came the red card.
Josh Caulfield caught Bealham’s head with his studs and a quick check with the television match officials left French referee Pierre Brousset with no option but the send off the lock (below) and Bristol were left to fight out the remaining 66 minutes a man down.
Connacht, with Niall Murray winning clean set-piece ball and Aki carrying hard in midfield, were clearly the hungrier, sharper side and were able to take advantage of poor Bears discipline: they conceded six penalties in the opening 20 minutes alone.
Bealham was temporarily removed for treatment on a cut to his head and replacement Aungier (below) used his ten minutes to good effect, barging over a few phases of quick hands after Smith turned the ball over from a sloppy breakdown on the 22.
This time it was right in front of the posts and Hanrahan slotted the conversion.
As he did so, Sinckler, left out of England’s Six Nations squad, walked slowly to the sideline, the prop infringing prior to Aungier’s score.
Bristol, eighth in the Premiership, escaped more immediate punishment when Connacht knocked on inside the 22 and made a brief appearance inside the Connacht half, which yielded a MacGinty penalty after a defender went off his feet.
But another jackal penalty from the restart allowed Jack Carty, who had just replaced the injured Hanrahan, to ping the ball into the corner.
Murray again took the lineout and the pack rumbled towards the line, drawing a penalty advantage before Blade (above) spotted a gap and dashed over to give the hosts a 17-3 lead in the 34th minute.
And they held onto that margin thanks to a superb defensive play by Hawkshaw, who first chased down Harry Randall just a yard short of the line before a follow up tackle on Kalaveti Ravouvou forced the wing into the clutches of two covering defenders.
Moments later, Murray rose to steal a lineout close to the Connacht line, capping off a superb 40 minutes from the Westerners.
The rain started to fall during the break but Connacht were cooking and should have had a fourth after the resumption.
However, the officials decided that Smith had put his foot in touch before diving into the corner.
It was a try of the season contender and was harshly chalked off by Pierre Baptiste Nuchy, the assistant who had stepped in as referee when Brousset suffered an injury.
Seconds later, Bolton dropped the ball before the line on the far wing but Connacht weren't to be denied for long.
Smith (above), in slightly more space and after almost mockingly transferring the ball into one hand to simulate his disallowed finish, dived over for the bonus-point score and the crowd got even louder when Carty converted from the touchline.
Marmion came on soon afterward and got a round of applause from the sold-out crowd of 6,129.
But there were louder cheers moments later when Ravouvou, after slaloming through the backfield, knocked on over the line when doubled-tackled by Hawkshaw and Cian Prendergast.
Bristol applied pressure in spells but even when they got to within touching distance of the line were denied, most spectacularly by Dave Heffernan’s steal and Carty’s intercept moments later.
Carty added a late penalty and Bristol eventually turned their late pressure into a score with a penalty try in the last play of the game.
Connacht: Tiernan O'Halloran; Andrew Smith, David Hawkshaw, Bundee Aki, Shayne Bolton; JJ Hanrahan, Caolin Blade (capt); Denis Buckley, Tadhg McElroy, Finlay Bealham; Niall Murray, Joe Joyce; Cian Prendergast, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Jarrad Butler.
Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Peter Dooley, Jack Aungier, Oisin Dowling, Conor Oliver, Michael McDonald, Jack Carty, Oran McNulty.
Bristol Bears: Max Malins; Kalaveti Ravouvou, Virimi Vakatawa, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Gabriel Ibitoye; AJ MacGinty, Harry Randall; Jake Woolmore, Gabriel Oghre, Kyle Sinckler; Josh Caulfield, Joe Batley; Steven Luatua, Fitz Harding (capt), Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements: Will Capon, Sam Grahamslaw, Max Lahiff, Joe Owen, Dan Thomas, Kieran Marmion, James William, Piers O'Conor.
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FRA)
