Steve Bates was able to name Brent Wilson in the starting XV for the first time since the first game of the season, alongside captain Russell Winter. Jamie Noon went down with an injury in the warm-up, and although he was able to start the game, he was replaced with Tom Dillon within the first ten minutes.

That was my replacement prediction knackered then, although of more concern was the long delay and the fact that Noon was blanketed over on the stretcher, and possibly in the blue flashy-lighted ambulance which Slacker saw leave the ground in the second half.

By the time Noonie went off, Rory Clegg had put us ahead with an early penalty, but the ever-dangerous Paul Sackey replied with a try on the right. With Danny Cipriani slightly off form with the boot, the try went unconverted, and the Falcons restored their lead later in the half with another penalty from Clegg.

At this point I have to say thank you to Perry Green for his column in the programme last night, which offers the first logical explanation I’ve seen of how the ELVs have increased the amount of aimless kicking, but I also have to be critical of how often the Falcons still gave the ball away when runs were possible. Even Steve Jones, a top performer again, wasn’t immune.

And although we all criticise John Rudd’s lack of tries, perhaps he’d score more if his team-mates were more inclined to use their wingers, rather than coming back inside and going to ground with the ball when the winger is free, yet the only person available to support them post-tackle. At least twice last night we wasted good opportunities, not necessarily to score, but to make good metres out wide.

Anyway, as a further injury blow robbed us of Adam Balding and brought club captain Phil Dowson onto the pitch, still in the first half, Wasps went into half time in the lead, after battering our line before Tom Rees drove over.

Referee Tim Wigglesworth, who came in for a lot of criticism and not unfairly a lot of the time, managed to miss a number of infringements, including Richard Birkett’s most blatant offside, before the score, which Cipriani converted.

The first half hadn’t been great, but the second period was just awful for the most part, the Falcons struggling to get a hold of the ball and when we did have it, we either kicked to invite a fast Wasps backline to run back at us or silly errors gave up possession. And when things are bad, things like Wasps’ third try happen.

Dippy sent a booming kick over dead onto the left corner, and Ollie Phillips spilled the ball straight to Tom Voyce who scored probably the easiest try of his career. 6-19 down after the conversion, the game looked lost, and things didn’t get any better as Carl Hayman was forced off following a charge-down, Joe McDonnell returning to the front row alongside his original replacement Jon Golding.

The introduction of Micky Young finally put some energy and spark into the Falcons’ play, and after 65 minutes we made a first foray into Wasps’ 22 in the second half. A try looked to have been scored when Dowson went over in the left corner, but the touch judge’s flag went straight up for touch and to be fair he was probably correct.

The Falcons continued to dominate the visitors in the scrum while searching for the vital try, and after persistent infringements around the ruck area, Pat Barnard was finally sin-binned for offside, although considering his team-mates had gotten away with it at the previous two breakdowns perhaps he might have felt aggrieved.

With seven minutes left, after five minutes of Geordie dominance replacement flanker/hooker Rob Vickers was driven over to put the Falcons back into the game, Clegg hitting the conversion. So now we had only a six-point deficit to make up and save one potential chance of glory this season.

It wasn’t to be, as Wasps kept the game downfield, looking desperately for a bonus point after losing their first game in the tournament too, and after screwing up a penalty aimed at touch the BP arrived thanks to a run and try from replacement scrum-half Joe Simpson. The conversion made the full-time score 13-26.

Although the Falcons didn’t help themselves at all last night, sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we were second best. Wasps were stronger, more streetwise and more skilful than us, and although we were in with a chance late on, Cipriani’s missed kicks cost Wasps eight points if I remember right so they could well have been out of sight by then anyway.

If we all had to buy our tickets for Gloucester now, it’d be interesting to see the crowd for next week’s match which competitively means nothing at all to us now. Hopefully we can at least put in a decent performance with no pressure on, with some running and flair-filled rugby which was absent last night, although it would make sense to play some fringe players such as Young, Miller, Williams, Golding and Vickers from the start.

We have played four cup games in a row, with three defeats. One more to get it right before the next batch of key Premiership matches. Hopefully.