Newcastle 10 Gloucester 7: Gloucester missed an opportunity to move to the top of the Guinness Premiership as Tom May's late penalty gave Newcastle a shock victory and heaped more misery on Bristol.

Dean Ryan's men suffered only their second defeat in 11 matches as May's penalty nine minutes from time stretched the Falcons' lead over bottom-of-the-table Bristol to seven points.

Gloucester, who lost full-back Olly Morgan with a badly fractured finger and centre Mike Tindall with a dead leg, clawed their way back into the game after going in at half-time 7-0 down.

Rory Lawson's try shortly after the break was converted by Olly Barkley to ensure the match went into the closing stages delicately poised.

But with Newcastle dealing with the swirling winds better than their high-flying visitors, their late pressure and territorial dominance was rewarded when May kept a cool head to land the decisive penalty.

Gloucester needed a win to move above London Irish and head into the European competition fortnight top of the English pile – but their losing bonus point was only enough to close the gap on the Exiles to two points.

And head coach Ryan, a former Newcastle player, did not have too many complaints about his side's defeat in a match which was undeniably spoiled by the high winds.

"It's difficult to play in 60mph winds," said Ryan.

"We've got to be critical of ourselves for probably not being smart enough in that second 40 minutes – but it was very difficult.

"The match was decided by a penalty and we have to take that on the chin and move on. It's a long time since weather conditions have influenced a game as clearly as that. There was an awful lot of effort – it was just difficult to put anything else on top of that effort."

The wind rendered any attempts at long passing or kicking redundant, and the opening 25 minutes were largely devoid of creativity as the teams sized up each other and the conditions.

Newcastle's Danny Williams broke the monotony when he opened the scoring on 26 minutes.

The rugby league convert received possession out wide after positive work from Jamie Noon and Micky Young, and somehow escaped the clutches of Mark Foster and Morgan to score.

Rory Clegg, who had failed with two earlier penalty attempts, mastered the conditions to land the conversion and give Newcastle a 7-0 advantage.

Gloucester kept themselves in the hunt, though, and the two front-row replacements Ryan made during the interval paid immediate dividends.

Nick Wood and Olivier Azam were brought on for Alasdair Dickinson and Andy Titterrell – and immediately put the shove on the Newcastle scrum, allowing Lawson to steal possession.

He switched the ball to Azam, who powered his way to within a metre of the line and received support from scrum-half Lawson, who dived over. Barkley's conversion made it 7-7 and the momentum appeared to be with the visitors.

But they failed to build on the score and soon found themselves defending deep in their own territory.

Steve Jones failed with a penalty attempt for the hosts, before a quick tap penalty from the impressive Young set up a lengthy Newcastle stay in the Gloucester 22.

The Falcons tried to batter their way over the line only for a knock on to deny them – but they were soon presented with an opportunity to move ahead when Azam was penalised for not releasing his man at the tackle.

May took over the kicking duties and, despite the wind playing havoc, he managed to find the middle of the posts to give Newcastle a 10-7 lead.

Gloucester roared back, but even when offered a shot at the sticks in the closing stages they opted for the scrum and, a couple of phases later, knocked on.

"When we came off at half-time we knew we had given ourselves a chance, so we are a little disappointed we lost some of our shape in the second half," said Ryan. "We did quite a few of the things we talked about not doing. But I don't think we'll make changes for the Cardiff game based on today.

"This was one of those one-offs – and hopefully the conditions against Cardiff won't resemble anything like those today.

"We will look at some of the previous form in games, we will look at who we've got fit and we will make the selection. But I don't think a huge amount will be based on what happened today."

And the head coach believes that, despite their surprise defeat in the north-east, his side are still in a strong position to reach the Premiership play-offs.

"We've done pretty well up to now and we've got some long-term injured players returning, so we will be confident going through," he said.

"If we can continue the form we have shown up to now, there is no reason why we can't be in the play-offs."

Newcastle: T May; D Williams, J Noon, T Tu'ipulotu, T Visser; R Clegg (S Jones 41), M Young; D Wilson, R Vickers (M Thompson 63), C Hayman, T Swinson, G Parling, P Dowson (capt), E Williamson (B Wilson 71), A Balding (M Sorenson 63). Reps not used: M Ward, J Grindal, A Tait.

Scorers: Try – Williams. Con – Clegg. Pen – May.

Gloucester: O Morgan (R Lamb 49); M Watkins, M Tindall (capt; A Allen 66), O Barkley, M Foster; W Walker, R Lawson; A Dickinson (N Wood 41), A Titterrell (O Azam 41), C Nieto, M Bortolami (W James 67), A Brown, A Strokosch (A Titterrell 80), A Satala, L Narraway. Reps not used: A Eustace, D Lewis.

Scorers: Try – Lawson. Con – Barkley.

Sin-binned: Azam (80, dissent).

Ref: T Wigglesworth. Att: 5,026.