BRISTOL'S search for a first Guinness Premiership victory of the season will continue after they left the north-east empty-handed last night.

The visitors fell to their fourth straight defeat of the new season – their tenth including the final six games of last term – and failed to take even a bonus point from a disappointing night at Kingston Park.

After an encouraging start, Bristol's performance was flat for long periods of last night's contest and they created very little in attack.

This had been billed as a relegation battle – and if Newcastle really are one of the two worst teams in the Premiership then Bristol could be in for a long, cold winter.

On an encouraging evening for the home side, Jonny Wilkinson took over as the leading scorer in the history of Premiership rugby with a 57th-minute conversion that saw him move onto 1,482 points.

But it was tries from Adam Balding and John Rudd either side of half-time that did the most damage to Bristol, who were outgunned by Carl Hayman and his hard-working Falcons pack.

Bristol made the brighter start, Ed Barnes narrowly missing a long-range penalty in the second minute before kicking his side into a fourth-minute lead.

Barnes' up-and-under wrong-footed the otherwise impressive home full-back Steve Jones, and as Newcastle tried to recover they infringed at the ruck, giving Barnes a routine kick to hand his side the lead.

Newcastle hit back, though, with Wilkinson levelling the score from more than 40 metres after Bristol were penalised for not rolling away from a tackle.

A Vunga Lilo knock-on from a Tom Arscott pass then allowed Newcastle to build a platform from which they launched a promising attack, Wilkinson and Jamie Noon combining effectively before Noon's pass to Tim Visser was deemed to have gone forward.

Newcastle did claim the first try of the night – and it was thanks largely to their hard-working forwards rather than Wilkinson and his backs.

Prop Joe McDonnell and No 8 Phil Dowson punched big holes in the Bristol defence, setting up a ruck from which former Gloucester captain Balding picked up and crashed over the line.

The try was scored next to the right-hand post, giving Wilkinson a simple conversion to kick his side into a 10-3 lead.

As the opening period limped to a close, Barnes was presented with another, albeit difficult, penalty opportunity – but dragged his effort wide of the posts from a tight angle.

The second half was slow to get going, but when it did it was Newcastle who threatened first.

And the hosts thought they had scored a second try on 55 minutes when Wilkinson sent full-back Jones scampering through a sizeable gap in the Bristol defence – only for referee Chris White to bring play back for a forward pass from the England man.

But the Newcastle supporters did not have to wait long for that second try, Rudd steaming over within a minute of Jones' effort being ruled out.

Visser came in off his wing to influence the Falcons' attack – and his break into the 22 created the space for his supporting runner, Rudd. Visser's pass to his fellow winger was timed to perfection, and Bristol had no answer to Rudd's momentum out wide.

Wilkinson had plenty to do to land the conversion, but his effort found the middle of the posts, taking him past Andy Goode's Premiership record of 1,480 career points and earning the Kingston Park icon a standing ovation.

Bristol hit back with a brief wave of pressure, but they spurned their best opportunity of the night on 67 minutes.

After a promising spell of phase-building, Graeme Beveridge and Barnes combined to set up Andrew Blowers, but the replacement knocked on and Bristol's best chance had gone.

Newcastle, without having to do anything particularly special, closed out victory with minimal fuss to move onto nine Premiership points for the season compared with Bristol's one.

Newcastle: S Jones; T Visser, J Noon, T May, J Rudd (S Davey 62); J Wilkinson, J Grindal (H Charlton 68); J McDonnell (M Ward 55), M Thompson (A Long 51), C Hayman, A Perry (T Swinson 62), M Sorenson, A Balding (R Winter 65), E Williamson, P Dowson (capt). Rep not used: R Clegg.

Scorers: Tries – Balding, Rudd. Cons – Wilkinson (2). Pen – Wilkinson.

Bristol: V Lilo; T Arscott, N Brew, L Arscott (G Barden 58), D Lemi; E Barnes (C Ashwin 72), G Beveridge (H Thomas 70); A Clarke, S Linklater (M Regan 72), J Hobson (P Bracken 58 (J Hobson 80)), R Winters (R Sidoli 65), N Budgett, M Salter (A Blowers 52), J El Abd (capt), D Ward-Smith.

Scorers: Pen – Barnes.

Ref: C White. Att: 6,056.