Steve Bates reckons his side's victory over Guinness Premiership leaders Leicester was their best of the season.
Coach delighted after toppling leaders
Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates reckons his side's victory over Guinness Premiership leaders Leicester was their best of the season.
Bates said: "The first-half in particular was our best performance of the season. I had said to the guys beforehand that we were going to have to be at our best tonight.
"We scored a cracking try and we played some really good stuff.
"We created two or three chances in the second half that we didn't convert that maybe could have made the winning margin larger.
"We did a lot of things tonight that we didn't do in defeat to Bath last week."
Bates was also keen to praise on fly-half May, who has impressed in the number 10 jersey since moving into the position from the wing during the victory against Gloucester in January.
"I thought he did a fantastic job tonight," said Bates.
"We had spoken to him about keeping us in the right areas. He is moving in the right direction and he suits us at the moment, he is playing well. He had a great game tonight doing what he is good at."
Leicester acting head coach Richard Cockerill praised Newcastle's display but admitted his side had been well below their best.
"I think we got more out of the game than we deserved in the end," said Cockerill.
"Our intensity did not match theirs most of the time and we were sloppy and turned the ball over. We were just a little bit disjointed tonight.
"It was the really basic things that let us down.
"We are very disappointed but we played nowhere near as well as we can, but credit to Newcastle they deserved to win the game and there is no question about that."
Cockerill also revealed captain Martin Corry had picked up a slight injury on his return from a six-week ban for making contact with the eye area of an opponent during the Heineken Cup defeat at the Ospreys in January.
The former England captain, playing at number eight, had a tough return and was replaced early in the second half.
Cockerill said, "He has tweaked his knee, it doesn't look to bad but we will assess it again in the morning and see where we are."
