Gloucester are still sweating on European Cup qualification after Newcastle Falcons won a thriller at Kingston Park with a try in injury time.

The match belonged to England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, who had a hand in just about every Newcastle score. He kicked two penalties in the first five minutes but Simon Mannix levelled the scores with penalties in the 11th and 18th before Newcastle edged ahead again with Wilkinson's third successful penalty on the half hour.

Wilkinson was proving to be the key figure and he struck again in the 32nd minute when he jinked through a gap in midfield and then floated a chip through for Tom May to beat Johnson to the touchdown. Wilkinson kicked the conversions for a 16-6 half-time lead.

Gloucester fought back strongly in the second half. The revival started within four minutes of the re-start when Chris Catling shot over in the corner when Newcastle's defence was stretched by Elton Moncrieff's swift pass.

The scrum half kicked a snap drop goal three minutes later to trim the Falcons' lead to two points.

Both Wilkinson and Mannix kicked penalties but then Wilkinson surged through on to Gary Armstrong's clever reverse pass to score and convert. But it was by no means over with Mannix kicking two penalties in three minutes with 10 minutes left.

When Andy Deacon was driven over from a line-out, Mannix had a conversion attempt to give Gloucester the lead for the first time, but he missed and Newcastle stayed one point in front. In injury time a typical Inga Tuigamala blast was carried on by number eight Ross Beattie and Armstrong popped the ball to Wilkinson, who put Michael Stephenson through the middle.

Jamie Noon finished off the move with a cracking try and Wilkinson converted with the 4,331 crowd in full voice.