The victory ended a run of successive home defeats for Mark McCall's side but it was not the convincing performance he would have wanted to add some sort of gloss to a season that at one stage had promised so much but ended up delivering little more than a second-seeding for the Heineken Cup next season.

It took a last-minute penalty by Paddy Wallace to take Ulster over the finish line after Edinburgh had brought themselves back into the contest with a converted try by Scott Murray on the hour mark.

Ulster had worked themselves into a commanding position at the break, with two Wallace penalties and a superb converted try by Andrew Maxwell, who raced in from the half-way line after Wallace had run the ball from his own line, establishing a 13-3 advantage.

But the failure to push on from such a platform - with Wallace missing two penalty attempts - was once again a concern against a much-weakened Edinburgh side.

Ulster at least were displaying vigour if not precision and Paddy Wallace slotted a penalty in the sixth minute to draw first blood for the home side.

Edinburgh responded but just as the visitors were beginning to exert a bit of territorial pressure, Ulster struck with a superb try from deep inside their 22. With the Ulster scrum under pressure, Wallace side-stepped his way out of trouble and launched a courageous counter-attack.

He found Tommy Bowe on his shoulder and the big full-back surged into the Edinburgh half before timing his pass to Andy Maxwell perfectly, with the winger having more than enough gas to race over in the corner in the 13th minute. Wallace added the conversion.

Duncan Hodge and Wallace then swapped penalties before it took some resolute Ulster defending at the death to prevent Edinburgh's forwards from burrowing over to protect their 10-point lead at the break.

A rampaging break by Stephen Ferris should have paved the way for Ulster to extend their lead but Roger Wilson couldn't hold a difficult pass as the ball was recycled.

As the game lost its shape, Wallace saw a penalty attempt rebound off the cross bar before his long pass to Paul McKenzie, with the wing in the clear, was adjudged forward.

Then from a turnover ball in the Edinburgh, the visitors blew the game wide open when from a five-metre scrum Scott Murray barged over for a try in the 60th minute, with Hodge adding the conversion.

Wallace missed a simple penalty chance to give Ulster some breathing space but he didn't make the same mistake in the 79th minute however as the game petered out.

ULSTER: T Bowe; P McKenzie, A Trimble, P Steinmetz, A Maxwell; P Wallace, I Boss; B Young, R Best, S Best, J Harrison, T Barker, N Best, S Ferris, R Wilson. Subs: J Fitzpatrick for Young (56)

EDINBURGH: A Monro; L Lopez Fleming, B Cairns, R Dewey, A Turnbull; D Hodge, G Laidlaw; A Jacobsen, D Hall, A Dickinson, F Pringle, S Murry, S Taylor, R Rennie, A Hogg. Subs: A Strokosch for Taylor (27-39), P Jorgensen for Monro (40) ; A MacDonald for Rennie (47); J Senio for Laidlaw (52); G Cross for Dickinson (65).

Referee: N Owens (WRU).