Full-time: Newcastle 10 Gloucester 7

Tom May's penalty nine minutes from time dented Gloucester's Guinness Premiership title charge – and piled more misery on bottom club Bristol.

The game at Kingston Park was delicately poised at 7-7 after Rory Lawson had responded to Danny Williams' first-half score when May stepped up to slot the vital kick.

Gloucester needed a victory to knock London Irish off the top of the table, while victory for Newcastle puts them seven points ahead of Bristol with 10 matches to play.

Newcastle took a 7-0 lead into the half-time interval following a low-key opening 40 minutes.

Williams' 26th-minute try livened up an otherwise poor first half – and Gloucester will be wondering how the rugby league convert broke through their defence to score.

Newcastle secured scrum ball and fed Jamie Noon, who linked with Micky Young, with the scrum-half playing Williams in on the right wing.

He somehow managed to beat Olly Morgan and Mark Foster to claim the first score of the match.

Rory Clegg, who had earlier failed with two penalty attempts, landed the conversion to give Newcastle a 7-0 advantage in a match which had implications for both ends of the Guinness Premiership table.

Both sides made six changes from their previous outings, with Gloucester bringing Mark Foster, Willie Walker, Lawson, Alasdair Dickinson, Andy Titterrell and Marco Bortolami back into their side.

And the opening 25 minutes were low on quality and incident, with the swirling wind playing havoc and limiting both sides' options.

Gloucester rarely ventured into the Newcastle 22 – and on the few occasions they did, they were unable to claim a tangible reward, Walker dropping the ball in a decent position shortly before the half-time whistle.

Gloucester made two front-row changes during the break, replacing Dickinson and Titterrell with Nick Wood and Olivier Azam.

And the replacements made an instant impact, helping make a mess of a Newcastle scrum in the Falcons' 22, which saw Lawson snatch possession for the visitors.

Hooker Azam's powerful play close to the line then paved the way for the supporting Lawson to pick up and dive over. Olly Barkley converted to bring Gloucester level at 7-7.

Midway through the second half, Steve Jones was off target with a 30-metre penalty after Gloucester had failed to retreat 10 metres at a free-kick.

Gloucester found it difficult to get out of their own half, with a number of basic errors keeping them penned in their own territory as they struggled to gain any kind of rhythm.

They had a big let-off when referee Tim Wigglesworth deemed Newcastle had knocked on a few metres short after Young's quick tap penalty and break had set up a decent attacking position.

Newcastle's territorial stranglehold soon paid off when Azam was penalised for not releasing his man at the tackle – and May kept his nerve and mastered the conditions to send the ball between the sticks.

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.