Connacht 16 Cardiff 16: Cardiff Blues' chances of challenging for the Magners League title took a hit at the Sportsground as they drew 16-16 with second-from-bottom Connacht.
Blues full-back Ben Blair was left ruing two missed penalty opportunities as the Welsh region slipped up in their bid to climb back into the top half of the table.
In a tense encounter, Connacht leaked an early try to Welsh international Tom Shanklin but after flanker Ray Ofisa's 18th-minute try, the home side were never headed.
Place-kickers Paul Warwick and Blair landed three penalties and a conversion apiece as the teams failed to be split for the first time in eight meetings.
Having won three of their last four league games, Cardiff oozed confidence from the kick-off and spread the ball wide through Nick Robinson. His offload found Shanklin, who was captaining the Blues for only the third time in his career, and the Wales centre dummied the cover to score in the corner.
With two minutes on the clock, Dai Young's men were 7-0 ahead, but Connacht clawed their way back into contention with a period of sustained pressure through their forwards, and Warwick mopped up with a 25-metre penalty.
After Marc Stcherbina has coughed up a try-scoring chance, Connacht missed two golden opportunities themselves as Mark McHugh narrowly failed to hold onto an intercept pass with the line in sight and Andrew Farley was also halted only metres from the line by a superb Gethin Jenkins tackles.
It was third time lucky for Connacht when industrious flanker Ofisa muscled over to the left of the posts for Warwick to convert them into a 10-7 lead.
A scrum offence allowed Blair to boot the visitors level, but Michael Bradley's side nosed their way back in front - 13-10 - before half-time thanks to a Warwick penalty, which followed a sin-binning for Blues flanker Scott Morgan for obstruction.
Crucially, Connacht failed to add any more points while Morgan was off the field and it was the Blues who drew strength for their display just after the restart.
Blair launched over a levelling penalty and when Connacht opted to kick a penalty to touch, the Welsh side's defence stood up strong to eventually clear the danger.
Patient build-up carved out another scoring opportunity for Warwick and he duly obliged with a 59th-minute penalty - that kick, however, proved to be Connacht's final score.
Blair soon tied up the game again but the New Zealander lost his nerve in the closing stages. After Warwick had whacked a penalty off the upright, Blair slipped when attempting to kick a 40-yard penalty through the posts. It sailed wide and, agonisingly for the small pocket of Blues fans, he also drilled an injury-time effort off the post.