Newcastle 16-14 Gloucester: Joel Hodgson seals Premiership win
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 07/04/17 11:00pm
Fly-half Joel Hodgson kicked a last-gasp penalty as Newcastle Falcons snatched a 16-14 victory over Gloucester at Kingston Park in the Aviva Premiership on Friday night.
The result keeps alive Newcastle's hopes of a place in next season's European Champions Cup after they fought back from 14-10 down with 15 minutes remaining.
Gloucester looked on course for victory after tries from Jonny May and Tom Marshall, both converted by Billy Twelvetrees.
Hodgson kicked a 66th-minute penalty to cut the lead to just one point and in a frantic finish, Newcastle piled on pressure at a scrum inside the Gloucester half to win a penalty, which Hodgson converted.
Newcastle dominated possession in the opening half hour and were rewarded with a 27th-minute try from Juan Pablo Socino, converted by Mike Delany.
But the visitors hit back through a lineout drive of their own and the ball was worked across field for May to dart low between Vereniki Goneva and Alex Tait to score in the corner, and Twelvetrees levelled the scores with the conversion.
Hodgson, on for Delany, kicked an early second-half penalty but a piece of individual brilliance from Marshall put Gloucester 14-10 up in the 48th minute.
The full-back kicked the ball through to split the Newcastle defence and won the race to touch down for a try, and Twelvetrees' conversion made it 14-10 to the Cherry and Whites.
Hodgson's penalty, after an offside call, cut the gap to just one point and Lloyd Evans made a high tackle on the Falcons fly-half that resulted in a sin-binning in the 71st minute.
The home side looked to be out of time when they knocked on just outside the Gloucester 22 before Hodgson's heroics with the last kick of the game to seal victory.
The result sees the Falcons climb up to ninth place in the table, one position behind Gloucester.
