Defences were very much on top at the Madejski Stadium, but we controlled much of the possession and came home with our third away win of the league season by three penalties to two.

Team news was positive for the Falcons with Matthew Burke and Cory Harris returning to the side, tempering the losses to international sides of Jamie Noon, Mathew Tait and Colin Charvis.  Jonny Wilkinson was on the bench, in the 22 for the first time since we lost to Irish at home in November, and Stuart Grimes was replaced with Geoff Parling at lock.

We attacked well from the start, with Tom May making a good run on the left before being bundled into touch, and David Walder kicking a penalty wide by a big margin.  He did better after 19 minutes however when after a long spell of pressure, with Andy Buist and Joe Shaw both having chances, Walder scored the first points of the day with a penalty.

Irish however equalized with a Mike Catt kick on the counter attack, as we were dominating the game.  Walder missed another penalty from 35m, before the hosts launched an offensive towards our line with only good work from the covering Burke allowing us to move back upfield.

Anthony Elliott’s lengthy run down the left, tackled just short of the line, was the last real chance of the first half, and the teams went in level 3-3.

Elliott almost had another chance early in the second half, as we moved an attack from right to left, but May held onto the ball too long into the tackle and by the time Mark Mayerhofler and Elliott were brought into the play, any advantage from outmanned attack had gone.  Walder did however score his second kick for a 3-6 lead, as Mike McCarthy came on to replace Owen Finegan.

Irish came more into the game from here, with us continuing to kick long for them to come back at us, and from a penalty on the left near the halfway line they kicked short.  Burke again came to our rescue as the last man when the dangerous Delon Armitage kicked towards the middle for his centres to chase, and our Aussie 15 was forced to kick into touch.

We were kept under the cosh though, and from a dangerous attack the Greens missed another penalty, as did Walder on 70 minutes.  However, we got away with it as straight from the drop-out, our fly-half knocked a kick through which outpaced everyone, unfortunately including May who had the Irish defence beaten.  Martin Fox pulled the game back for a penalty in an almost identical position, which Walder slotted over.

With our defence standing firm, we seemed good for the win unless we did anything stupid.  Exiles’ replacement Ross Laidlaw kicked a penalty to create a bit more tension, but although the home side kept attacking, and we kept kicking to their back three to allow them to keep attacking, the referee finally blew for full time after a little consultation with his touch judge, and Falcons on the pitch and all around the stadium erupted in delight and relief.

The joy of the Newcastle players and the intensity of the game from their viewpoints was proved by the fact they stayed on the pitch applauding with the fans quite longer than usual.  A superb result, brought about initially through skill and pressure to dominate the play but in the end through resilience and courage to defend our line.

Man of the match for me was Andy Perry, who showed today he can be a player who takes the lineout by the throat, accepts responsibility and takes control when things are difficult, just as Stuart Grimes has done for years.  However, he was complemented by a good performance from Geoff Parling too.

Although this win doesn’t lift us up from 7^th in the Premiership, we are now ten points ahead of Leeds on the bottom and, being only two points below Worcester and four behind Irish, we can perhaps look above us to the Heineken places, especially with two home games coming up and five left this year.

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