Newcastle Falcons tasted defeat in their final home game of the Gallagher Premiership season when Gloucester Rugby left Kingston Park with all five points.

The home side trailed 21-5 at half-time but grabbed the game’s first try seven minutes in when Ben Stevenson powered over in the left corner.

The winger scored under the weight of two attempted tacklers, Callum Chick having broken down the left on his last home game as a Newcastle player in a passage of play started by Elliott Obatoyinbo’s counter-attack.

Brett Connon’s touchline conversion was just millimetres wide, and the fly-half was in the thick of the action moments later, winning a jackal penalty as Gloucester attacked without return.

The Cherry and Whites responded and took the lead on 17 minutes when they kicked a penalty to the left corner, former Falcons centre Chris Harris ghosting through a midfield hole as a line-out was worked infield.

Bath-bound full-back Santi Carreras added the conversion from in front of the posts, and the sin-binning of back-row pair Cam Neild and Callum Chick added to the size of the Falcons’ task.

The visitors were awarded a penalty try when a maul in the left corner was halted illegally, and they quickly followed it up with their third try when centre Seb Atkinson exploited the extra space to run home from halfway.

Ruan Ackermann thought he had scored the bonus-point try on the half-hour only to be pulled back by the TMO for offside, leaving his side 16 points ahead at the break.

The home side started the second half strongly, earning a five-metre scrum on the back of runs from Chick and Tom Gordon in a period of play which saw Harris sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle.

Newcastle failed to make it count on the scoreboard, however, with a scrappy middle third to the contest seeing both teams turning the ball over.

Gloucester were the first team to find their way over the try-line when Jack Cotgreave sped into the left corner to chalk up their bonus point, but the Falcons hit back with a length-of-the-field special.

Replacement scrum-half Joe Davis was the man to race home, rounding off a move which began with Pepper’s wide pass finding Stevenson for a telling run down the left.

Connon converted, and the hosts made a further incursion when Obatoyinbo jinked his way into the Gloucester 22.

Their race looked to be run, however, seven minutes from time when Stevenson was shown a straight red card for a tackle on a Gloucester player in the air under a high ball, with the Cherry and Whites taking all five points back down to the West Country.

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Ben Redshaw (Max Pepper, 61), 13 Alex Hearle (Oli Spencer, 77), 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart (Joe Davis, 50); 1 Adam Brocklebank (Micky Rewcastle, 77), 2 Jamie Blamire (Bryan Byrne, 55), 3 Murray McCallum (Luan de Bruin, 61), 4 John Hawkins (Oscar Usher, 68), 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Cameron Neild (Freddie Lockwood, 61), 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Scorers – Tries: Ben Stevenson, Joe Davis. Conversions: Brett Connon.

Gloucester Rugby: 15 Santi Carreras, 14 Christian Wade (Charlie Atkinson, 70), 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Jack Cotgreave, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Ciaran Knight (Jamal Ford-Robinson, 54), 2 Jack Singleton (Seb Blake, 54), 3 Kirill Gotovtsev (Afo Fasogbon, 54), 4 Arthur Clark, 5 Freddie Clarke, 6 Freddie Thomas, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 8 Ruan Ackermann.

Scorers – Tries: Chris Harris, Penalty try, Seb Atkinson, Jack Cotgreave. Conversions: Santi Carreras 2.

Referee: Matthew Carley. Attendance: 5,875.