Although we had our fair share of possession, particularly in the second half, we just couldn’t break through the home defensive wall, while Mark Mayerhofler was sorely missed as Gloucester ran in three tries.

          The day began badly for me （after being at work until 1am the previous night）as my train to Cheltenham terminated in Birmingham due to “technical problems”, yet five minutes later left as the 10.18 to Macclesfield!  Subsequently missing a connection in Cheltenham I didn’t arrive in Gloucester until 12.22, but still with plenty of time to go until the game.

          Rob Andrew had made several changes to the side which beat Harlequins, notably Phil Dowson and Marius Hurter returning to the pack and most intriguingly Joe Shaw replacing Mayerhofler at inside centre.  It seemed important for him to have a big game, otherwise we’d be in for a very tough time.

          As it was, Shaw had to be helped off injured early in the first half, and was replaced by Matthew Tait with Tom May moving to centre, and Gloucester were quickly on the scoresheet with a penalty from Henry Paul.  They didn’t have to wait long for their first try either as a quick penalty set away lightning winger Marcel Garvey for a touchdown which Paul converted.  Newcastle attacked for a few minutes but the home side soon won a lineout on the left hand corner, and from the resulting maul Alex Brown, according to Zurich one of the 10 most influential players in Premiership history (?) was driven over for an unconverted try.

          Jonny Wilkinson knocked a penalty over for our first points of the afternoon, before Paul added another two of his own.  Wilkinson’s second and third kicks, the former a beat of an effort from halfway, completed the scoring in a first period which ended 21-9 to Gloucester.

We had some work to do during and after the break.

          At half time we brought on James Isaacson for Ian Peel, Andy Long for Matt Thompson and Colin Charvis for Mike McCarthy to try to gain a foothold in the forwards battle, and initially we did quite well to enjoy the bulk of the play.  However we just couldn’t break down the Gloucester line, a penalty from Wilkinson on the hour being the best we could do.

          Duncan McRae immediately returned the favour with his penalty, before James Simpson-Daniel pounced on a stray pass from Wilkinson to cross for Gloucester’s third try, Paul converting.  As the Shed sang “Are you watching Rob Andrew?” we tried to salvage at least a consolation try if we couldn’t get a bonus point, and eventually Michael Stephenson weaved his way through for an unconverted try with the last play of the game.  Immediately after Wilkinson’s failed kick the referee blew for full time on what was to be fair, a comprehensive defeat for us.

          Although we never really looked like we would win today, and a defeat without a bonus point is extremely annoying, it should, like Harlequins last week, serve to keep our feet on the ground and make sure the Boys are still working. Plus, offered three wins from our first four games, including Bath and Gloucester away, I think most people would have taken that. 13 points is more than respectable, and we already have two away wins under our belts.

          Any anticipated nastiness towards us or Rob Andrew, bar the chant to him and a distinct lack of silence during our kicks, never really came. The worst I experienced was some teenage wise guy asking me while I was buying a programme “Do you just support Newcastle because of Jonny?” I replied that we didn’t have him eight years ago, I should have pointed out that probably a third of the people in Kingsholm today claiming to be Gloucester fans only wanted to see him. Or, as Monkey suggested, “Jonny who?”

          He has a point. To be honest, last season I got so used to Wilkinson not playing for us that he has become just another player to me, and I see Stuart Grimes and Mark Mayerhofler as much more important, certainly harder to replace. Wilkinson hasn’t really started the season on fire, though his kicking has been vital, both tactically and for points. Hopefully once his running gets back up to scratch he will help the team to keep improving.

          Because while this match showed we were probably not up to playoff standard yet, the season so far suggests that we are more than capable of a top 5 place if we keep getting better and playing well. This is not doom and gloom, or going from one extreme to the other after one defeat – since Worcester I’ve thought we would still be successful to get into the top 5, I still believe that and that we can do it.

Positives – lots fewer individual errors.

Negatives – inability to break down Gloucester’s defence when we were on top. Our defence shown up without Mayerhofler.

Fans – Poor performance off the pitch from us Falcons too. One or two chants of “Falcons” aside, we made little contribution to the atmosphere unfortunately. I include myself in this criticism.

Programme - £2.50, 68 pages, 21 pages advertising. Decent read with all normal features. Excellent 7-page section on the away team including a look back at our first league trip to Kingsholm in 1994. As good as Bath’s but 50p cheaper.

Gloucester - Jon Goodridge, Marcel Garvey 1T (37-40, James Bailey) , Terry Fanolua, Henry Paul 2C 3P, James Simpson-Daniel 1T, Duncan McRae 1P, Andy Gomarsall, Nick Wood (57, Simon Emms) , Olivier Azam (54, Chris Fortey) , Terry Sigley, Peter Buxton, Alex Brown, Jake Boer (c) , Andy Hazell, Adam Balding (49, Adam Eustace).  Subs not used: Luke Narraway, Alex Page, Simon Amor.

Newcastle - Matthew Burke, Tom May, Jamie Noon, Joe Shaw (23, Matthew Tait), Michael Stephenson 1T, Jonny Wilkinson 4P, James Grindal (52, Hall Charlton) , Ian Peel (40, James Isaacson) , Matt Thompson (40, Andy Long) , Marius Hurter, Luke Gross (72, Craig Hamilton) , Stuart Grimes, Mike McCarthy (40, Colin Charvis) , Semo Sititi, Phil Dowson.  Sub not used: David Walder.

Referee: Ashley Rowden

Attendance: 13,000

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