By Leipziger
September 1 2007

The Falcons wrapped up their pre-season last night with a defeat to Glasgow at Firhill, in a match that won't long be remembered by the visiting fans who saw a display of at times bafflingly poor defence and scrappy, error-strewn attacks. Yet in the end, we did only lose by 5 points.

John Fletcher fielded a strong side, which give or take a couple of players will start in the Premiership in 15 days, but the committed and skilled Scottish opponents held on for a win which wasn't as tight as the scoreline suggests.

 

Whilst Steve Jones made his first start at fly-half, it was his opposite number Colin Gregor who opened the scoring as Glasgow's slick passing beat our slack defence and the hosts won a penalty.  The score was doubled soon after as James Hoyle was beaten on the left and we infringed again.

 

The Falcons' first meaninfgul attack came from a lineout and although Glasgow stole the loose ball, pressure was applied and we won a penalty for holding on, Jones halving the home side's lead.  Newcastle then put together a little spell of possession, but apart from a great run from Joe McDonnell could not really get closer than 10 metres.  Jones' second penalty attempt missed too.

 

It was Glasgow though who crossed the try-line first, breaking and beating a weak defence not looking too interested in tackling for Chris O'Young to score on the right, and the conversion in the increasingly dark stadium made the half-time score 13-3.

 

Minutes after the restart (with the floodlights on, thankfully), replacement Sam Pinder extended the hosts' lead to 15 points with an unconverted try, and Glasgow spent the early stages of the half camped in the Falcons' part of the field, before we were able to break.

 

A raft of Newcastle replacements began with the introduction of David Wilson and Adam Dehaty, and our boysstarted to attack with more purpose and control, winning a number of lineouts and almost pushing over the line only for the mal to be pulled down.  From a resulting lineout though, Andy Buist was driven over for the Falcons' first try.

 

Glasgow hit back but strong defence kept them outside the 22, before a high tackle gave the hosts a penalty, which went wide.  The Falcons predictably dominated the late part of the game, and although Glasgow were given a scrum when we infringed in a maul, shortly after captain Phil Dowson scored the last points of the night from a turnover.

 

Ultimately the result and performance in general was disappointing, and whilst the Falcons did carry out some good attacking in the second half, the desperately poor defence overall cannot be ignored and will hopefully be corrected before Sale come to KP.