Steve Diamond made no attempt to sugar coat things as Saturday’s 54-14 loss at Gloucester consigned Newcastle Falcons to a win-less Gallagher Premiership season.

Speaking after the Kingsholm clash, the consultant director of rugby said: “We gave Gloucester three first-half opportunities from turnovers, and they scored three tries.

“We had a lot of territory and possession in the first half but couldn’t convert, and that’s been the story of the season, really.

“We’ve shown lots endeavour and the attitude has been great, but our knowledge and execution has been lacking.

“The league table doesn’t lie, and we can’t sit here saying we’ve been unlucky, or it’s the bounce of a ball or a referee’s decision. It’s there in black and white.”

Crediting Gloucester for an emphatic home victory, Diamond said: “They took a bit of grief last week but they turned up today on form in front of a big home crowd, and fair play to them.

“Good luck to them in their cup final next weekend, and it’s been a tough day for us.”

Faced with the task of readying his side for next season, the Falcons boss said: “What we’re after is people who’ve got good experience in the Premiership or similar competition, they’re durable and hard-wearing and won’t let results like today happen on a regular basis.

“We’ll have a total of eight or nine lads coming in in total who will help give us that steel that we need, and the story in the press about Stuart Hogg has no truth in it.

“The recruitment at Newcastle hasn’t been fantastic, and we’re sorting that out. If you bring in Championship players en-masse you become a Championship team, and our results over the last year demonstrate that. Yeah, one or two as part of a wider recruitment strategy is fine, and we’re putting things in place so that we never have another season like this.

“The task won’t be done quickly, because you can’t take a team as demoralised as this and make them a top-four outfit. But what we can do is get off the bottom of the league, make Kingston Park a horrible place for teams to come to and be highly competitive.

“It will make for a better league, because having a team in it who haven’t won a single game isn’t good for anybody.”