By Leipziger
November 22 2010

Our Falcons picked up a huge four points yesterday to put daylight between themselves and Leeds at the bottom of the Premiership.  For the third season in a row, the visit of Gloucester to KP was a massive game, and thrice in a row now our lads have delivered.

As the North East rain lashed down, no tries were scored but that didn’t make the game any less absorbing or intense.  The last ten minutes were so incredibly nervy as Gloucester, 12-6 down, attached relentlessly but the lionheart Newcastle defence held out.

The home crowd was already buoyed pre-match by the returns of James Hudson and Tane Tu’ipulotu, though the latter began on the bench.  Luke Eves, Jimmy Gopperth, Rob Vickers, Tim Ryan and Luke Fielden all returned to the starting lineup along with Ally Hogg.

The Falcons began the game in hungry mood and our early attacks bore fruit with two Gopperth penalties in the opening 15 minutes.  Fielden and Brent Wilson drove for the line in a promising attack but Gcobani Bobo knocked on just metres out on the far right.

The visitors attacked our line with a succession of scrums, but the Geordie defence held out as Tim Ryan put the horrors of Northampton behind him with a strong performance, before being unwillingly forced off with injury.  The scrum then struggled initially with Micky Ward on in Ryan’s place.

After Tu’ipulotu also replaced Charlie Amesbury, receiving a big cheer from the home fans, Gopperth kicked another penalty in the final minutes of the first half.

9-0 up at half-time against a team that began the day fourth in the table was obviously a decent position, following an encouraging performance that had yielded little in terms of clear chances, but was not short on endeavour.  Apart from the scrum, Gloucester had not looked very threatening up to that point.

The rain intensified at half-time, and some supporters wondered whether we would complete the 80 minutes.  Perhaps not surprisingly the second half saw more kicking, and Gopperth showed a lot of invention including sending up a bomb from a free-kick in the Gloucester half.

A fourth penalty gave us some breathing space while Gloucester’s main attacking idea now seemed to be to send high balls to Jeremy Manning at every opportunity.  The full-back fielded them all however and had an excellent game despite visibly not enjoying the cold.  In fact considering the weather yesterday it is to both teams’ credit that there didn’t seem to be that many handling errors, certainly no more than normal.

Perhaps the visitors’ best chance came from a hack through from midfield, but Fielden outpaced everyone else to touch the ball dead, sliding at speed into an advertising board for his trouble.

Freddie Burns kicked two penalties and Gloucester entered the last ten minutes just six points behind.  They attacked hard in the dying stages of the match, but every time the Falcons needed to make a tackle someone was there to do it.

Finally, with seconds to go we cleared from close to the line, but the kick fell to Gloucester’s replacement winger Lesley Vainikolo.  The Volcano had been booed when he came on for some reason, but we’ll have to cheer him next season though as he knocked on!

Horror had turned to sheer relief in such a short time.  There was just time for the scrum but the Falcons carried the ball into touch and the game was over!

This precious win takes us seven points clear of Leeds and just three behind tenth-placed Sale.  So many players had massive games yesterday, from the talismanic Hudson to the nippy Micky Young, inventive Gopperth to rock-solid Manning.

We now head to Leicester with probably our best chance of winning there in years as the Tiggers struggle for league form and suffer the loss of several internationals.

Wherever our next win comes from, let’s hope it won’t be quite as nerve-shredding as yesterday.  We should be used to it but these nail-biting finishes never become any easier.