Premiership: Gloucester 21-27 Newcastle - Falcons climb off bottom with second win

Adam Radwan set Falcons on their way with his third try of the season

Gloucester suffered back-to-back defeats as strugglers Newcastle claimed a surprise 27-21 win at Kingsholm.

The Falcons scorched into a 24-0 lead through scores from Adam Radwan, Callum Chick and George McGuigan.

Tom Seabrook's try gave the hosts hope and Cameron Jordan crossed with Newcastle down to 13 to make it 24-14.

But Brett Connon's penalty extended the lead and the Falcons held on despite a conceding a penalty try which saw them reduced to 13 men for a second time.

After picking up four yellow cards in the final 24 minutes, Newcastle withstood terrific late pressure to secure only their second Premiership win of the season, which lifts them off the bottom and above London Irish and Bristol.

But it was a disappointing afternoon for the Kingsholm faithful who saw a sloppy first half punished with a first home defeat of the season and back-to-back losses, which followed four straight wins.

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Looking for a reaction after a dismal home defeat by Bath, Newcastle started superbly and were rewarded when Radwan outpaced the home defence with an arcing run to the corner.

The Premiership's lowest try-scorers had a second inside 14 minutes as the dozing hosts were caught out by a short line-out throw, which released Michael Young to feed the supporting Chick.

The Cherry and Whites looked rattled as their usually watertight set-piece faltered, underscored when an attacking 5m line-out was stolen by the Falcons.

Newcastle took advantage of a mounting penalty count as Connon's boot punished Santiago Socino's no-arms tackle, before McGuigan splintered off the back of a maul to cross from an attacking line-out.

Seabrook finally gave Gloucester some momentum from a 5m line-out, the wing following up Charlie Chapman's dart down the blind side to power past two tackles and cross.

Heading into the final quarter, Newcastle began to buckle as the Cherry and Whites cranked up the pressure.

McGuigan was shown a yellow card for collapsing a maul as it rolled over the line, and five minutes later he was joined in the sin-bin by Sean Robinson.

Having been held up over the line moments earlier, Jordan dived over to cut the gap to 10 points with 17 minutes left, but another soft penalty proved critical as Connon booted Newcastle further ahead.

The Falcons returned to full strength but almost immediately lost Chick to the bin. Moments later Tom Penny followed him for an infringement which gave the hosts their penalty try.

Yet somehow Newcastle's 13 men saw out a frantic final seven minutes.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Gloucestershire:

"It was pretty poor. I feel that Newcastle turned up today and won every little scrap, every mini battle, and obviously they flew out to a lead early doors.

"Pretty much similar to last week (a 27-17 defeat against Sale), we started to exert a lot of pressure, but didn't capitalise enough so I've got no excuses for that.

"We were collectively off all game. I thought there would be a serious shift from where we were last week, albeit I didn't think it was bad last week.

"We've trained hard this week and thought we'd addressed all the issues, but in that first half Newcastle looked like a much more connected team than us and they got their rewards."

Newcastle Falcons head coach Dave Walder told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"Last week against Bath wasn't a true reflection of ourselves. We were disappointed with our attitude and I think it was the polar opposite today.

"We stopped their maul. They might have scored one, but a big part of coming down here is knowing that if you stop that, you go a long way to helping give yourself a good chance.

"And the backs looked dangerous. They had a hunger and an energy, and as a unit I thought they were outstanding at times when they were defending two, three men down.

"They really fought together and showed real unity across the team. We needed that here and managed to hold on."

Gloucester: Moyle, Seabrook, Reeves, Twelvetrees, Morris, Evans, Chapman; Elrington, Socino, Balmain, Clarke, Davidson, Reid, Ludlow, Ackermann.

Replacements: Singleton, Knight, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Clement, Meehan, Barton, Hearle.

Newcastle Falcons: Obatoyinbo, Radwan, Stevenson, Penny, Earle, Connon, Young; 1 Mulipola, McGuigan, Palframan, Merrick, de Chaves, Lockwood, Pepper, Chick.

Replacements: Blamire, Brocklebank, Tampin, Peters, Robinson, Stuart, Schoeman, Greenlaw.

Sin-bin: McGuigan (56), Robinson (61), Chick (72), Penny (73).

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe.