NEWCASTLE Falcons will be grateful that Leeds and Worcester are well adrift in the Guinness Premiership after slipping to the fringe of the relegation places yesterday.

Tries from Iain Balshaw and Olivier Azam helped Gloucester remain top after a competent victory at Kingston Park.

Newcastle lost hooker Matt Thompson before the game and Director of Rugby John Fletcher said: ''Things didn't go our way today and you have to be at the top of your game against this Gloucester side.

"We had some illness in the camp. Matt was ruled out before kick-off and Lee Dickson and Geoff Parling had to have injections to stop them vomiting.

''We had a few missed opportunities and we dropped a few passes. We felt the game was there for the taking and we're not too happy about the fact Jonny Wilkinson was being held off the ball when they scored. How the referee didn't see that I'll never know.''

Wilkinson's two missed penalties did not help his chances of hanging on to his England place in the face of competition from youngsters like Gloucester's Ryan Lamb.

One of the misses was a simple chance in the second half.

Newcastle started well with both Mathew Tait and Tom May finding long touches to keep Gloucester in their own 22 and when the Cherry and Whites strayed offside, Wilkinson kicked a fifth-minute penalty.

But then Newcastle lost the ball just outside their 22 and against some woeful tackling Lamb's reverse pass spread-eagled the Falcons and Marco Bortolami's overhead pass set up a simple try for Balshaw.

Lamb's conversion from the touchline made it 7-3 before Wilkinson was just short from 55 metres.

The Falcons moved up a gear and May popped a pass to Russell Winter on the touchline and the big No 8 surged away before slipping the ball to Geoff Parling, who scored in the corner. Wilkinson converted for Newcastle to lead 10-7.

Referee Martin Fox then yellow-carded Falcons flanker Ben Woods when he went for an interception and knocked on. It was a marginal offence and it would have been very harsh had the resultant penalty to the corner produced a try.

As it was, Azam overthrew the line-out and it was a chance wasted.

Azam made amends when Gloucester drove a line-out after another penalty into the corner, but it looked very much as if the hooker had run into his own man just before he crossed for the try, which was converted by Lamb.

It needed a great tap tackle from Anthony Allen to deny Tait just after half-time when the full-back chipped ahead, kicked on and gathered, only to be stopped 15 metres out.

Tait produced a surging run from Wilkinson's popped pass but the referee decided it was forward.

He was doing Newcastle no favours with successive penalties for wheeling the scrum and not rolling away in the tackle, and from the second Lamb made it 17-10.

Newcastle launched a breathtaking attack which covered 70 metres, but crucially they turned the ball over again close to the Gloucester line. When Wilkinson missed a simple penalty, little was going the home side's way.

With ten minutes left, Wilkinson did kick a 40-metre penalty to make it 17-13 but Lamb knocked one over from in front of the posts three minutes later to restore the seven-point gap.