Gloucester centre Mike Tindall evades Jonny Wilkinson's tackle

Newcastle: (10) 13
Try: Parling
Con: Wilkinson
Pens: Wilkinson 2

Gloucester: (14) 20
Tries: Balshaw, Azam
Cons: Lamb 2
Pens: Lamb 2

Gloucester returned to the top of the Guinness Premiership with a hard-fought win over Newcastle at Kingston Park.

Jonny Wilkinson landed an early penalty for the hosts but Gloucester were first to cross the tryline via Iain Balshaw.

The Falcons hit back with a score from flanker Geoff Parling, but Gloucester went in 14-10 up at half-time after a try from hooker Olivier Azam.

Ryan Lamb added two second-half penalties for the visitors, Newcastle having to settle for a bonus point.

Wilkinson missed two kicks at goal, one of them a simple chance in the second half, and Newcastle turned over plenty of possession after a promising start which yielded a fifth-minute penalty for the England fly-half.

Lamb exposed some woeful tackling after a turnover near the Falcons 22 before lock Marco Bortolami's overhead pass set up a simple try for Balshaw.

Lamb converted from the touchline before Wilkinson was just short with a huge penalty attempt from 55m.

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The Falcons went up a gear and Tom May popped a pass to Russell Winter and the big number eight surged away before slipping the ball to Parling to score in the corner, Wilkinson thumping over the conversion for a 10-7 lead.

The Falcons were reduced to 14 men when flanker Ben Woods was yellow-carded when he went for an interception and knocked on.

It was a marginal offence but from the penalty, kicked to the corner, Azam overthrew the line-out and Gloucester wasted the chance.

Azam made amends when Gloucester drove a line-out after another penalty into the corner, but it appeared the hooker had run into his own man just before he crossed for the try, converted by Lamb.

Anthony Allen denied Mathew Tait, playing at full-back for the third time since the World Cup, a try just after half-time with a great tap-tackle 15m out, after Tait had chipped ahead and gathered his own kick.

Newcastle were twice penalised in quick succession and from the second infringement, Lamb made it 17-10 with a penalty.

The Falcons launched a breathtaking 70m attack only to turn the ball over again close to the Gloucester line, and Wilkinson missed a simple penalty to compound their woes.

The fly-half did land a 40m effort with 10 minutes left to close the gap to four points, but Lamb knocked one over in front of the posts three minutes later to restore the seven-point gap.

"The game was there for the taking and we're not too happy about the fact Jonny Wilkinson was held off the ball when they scored.

"How the referee didn't see that I'll never know."

"There is a danger with Newcastle that you get sucked into the way they want to play which is like sevens with 30 players on the field.

"We were very competent in defence and we won it off the back of our scrum."

Newcastle: Tait, May, Noon (captain), Flood, Rudd, Wilkinson, Dickson; Golding, Long, Hayman, Perry, Sorenson, Parling, Woods, Winter.
Replacements: Vickers, Wilson, Tomes, Wilson, Grindal, Visser, Phillips

Gloucester: Balshaw, Simpson-Daniel, Tindall, Allen, Vainikolo; Lamb, Cooper; Wood, Azam, Nieto, Bortolami (capt), Brown, Strokosch, Narraway, Delve.
Replacements: Titterrell, Collazo, James, Buxton, Lawson, Walker, Lloyd.