Our Falcons finished another home season yesterday with a much-needed win over London Irish to book a trip to Gloucester next Sunday.

Irish put up a spirited fight, particularly in the first half, but in the end we triumphed 23-16 and finish seventh in the Premiership table, qualifying for the Wildcard playoffs for the first time and still in with a chance of playing in next season’s Heineken Cup.

In the build-up to the game Newcastle announced five changes to the team that went down at Northampton two weeks ago, bringing in Hall Charlton, Micky Ward and Mathew Tait, while Matt Burke and Jonny Wilkinson returned from injury. Colin Charvis was again captain and would have a storming game.

The visitors were first on the scoreboard with a try from winger Delon Armitage, which Barry Everitt converted. However we hit back with a penalty from Wilkinson after Luke Gross was tackled and Irish went offside. Wilkinson’s next attempt missed the target, but came in the wake of Ryan Strudwick steaming through a mellee of players to exact violent retribution on somebody, an offence Roy Maybank inexplicably decided wasn’t worthy of a card, despite the 9,328 crowd howling for blood.

Wilkinson was having a fine game and from a break by our number 10 the ball came to Charlton who dummied a pass to Jamie Noon and touched down for a try, but was pulled back for crossing, a decision with Touchline’s photos suggest was incorrect.

We would not be denied however and when our try came it was scored by Burke on the right hand side as our back row drove through the Irish defence. Although the pile of players was not too big, Phil Dowson was first announced as the scorer before a correction was made. And I thought Cory Harris had scored it! Anyway, Wilkinson missed the conversion but we had a slender 8-7 lead.

It didn’t last long unfortunately as Everitt kicked a penalty to make the half time score 8-10. Despite the small deficit, we were not playing well and had a lot to do in the second half.

Things didn’t look so good initially as Irish extended their lead to five points with another penalty, but two from Wor Jonny put us back into the lead 14-13. We attempted numerous drop goals to increase the advantage, but despite having more territory than we did in the first half, it was Irish, still not safe from relegation, who looked more likely to score a try. Tait in particular made one outstanding tackle on the left.

Two more penalties from Wilkinson gave us a seven point lead and all was looking rosy but Everitt pulled one back to keep us on edge. However the final scoring act was Wilkinson’s sixth penalty to produce a final scoreline of 23-16. After only a few minutes of injury time the referee blew for the end of the regular season, and as news came through of Gloucester’s defeat, it looked like we would get a home draw in the Wildcard. Unfortunately it failed to register with me that their bonus point kept them ahead of us, and so we visit Kingsholm next Sunday.

Afterwards Matt Burke received awards for Man of the Match and Player of the Season. The latter, few could disagree with. However, today I personally thought Charva was our best player. A driving force in attack, always making tackles and spoiling Irish attacks, our captain was everywhere, leading by example. Burke, Wilkinson and Gross also had good games.

What was pleasing today was that the little errors which have plagued us recently weren’t so frequent. Few turnovers or dropping the ball, a half-decent lineout, running the ball or kicking for touch instead of just hoofing it down the full-back’s throat (though this was not completely eradicated). We still need to be more penetrative in attack at Gloucester, but at least Wilkinson has his kicking boots on.

Today’s game was a must-win in order to secure a Wildcard place but also to get some form going into these games. Because we have to win this to get back into the European Cup and claim some success from this season.

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