Gloucester's hopes of regaining the leadership of the Guinness Premiership were blown off course yesterday by 60mph gales and a Newcastle Falcons pack with the wind in its sails. The home team put daylight between themselves and Bristol at the bottom of the table with as effective a performance as they have produced this season to record their first league win since September.

The posts were swaying as Tom May, Newcastle's third place-kicker of a testing afternoon, lined up the winning penalty from 30 metres in the 72nd minute and thumped the ball for all he was worth. Gloucester spurned an opportunity to draw level with a penalty in the last minute of normal time, in search of a try that never looked on the cards. “We decided to have a go,” Dean Ryan, their head coach, said. “It'd have been a good and brave decision had it come off.”

Mike Tindall, whose vast experience Martin Johnson could call on when the England team manager announces his 32-strong RBS Six Nations Championship squad on Wednesday, limped off after 65 minutes with a dead leg. It was apparently a result of a tackle by potential England rival, Jamie Noon, as Tindall, the 2003 World Cup winner, pitched in to assist his forwards by taking the ball up.

The good news for Tindall, after a week in which he was banned for three years for drink-driving, is that he is unlikely to be a fitness doubt. However, Olly Morgan, the Gloucester full back, is not expected to figure for England after fracturing a finger in the second half that required surgery last night. His missed tackle that allowed Danny Williams, the former Leeds Rhinos wing, to go over in the 25th minute compounded his woes.

Gloucester's patience and discipline were found wanting against dogged opponents who grasped their relegation lifeline and would not let go. They were aided and abetted by nine penalties to Gloucester's one in the second half and Olivier Azam being shown a yellow card for dissent after Gloucester had frustratingly blown their last chance to win in a desperate finish.

Newcastle's third league win of the season eases some of the pressure on the club, which Dave Thompson, the owner, would have offloaded had there been a buyer. A meagre 5,000 crowd suggests there is plenty more to do to restore confidence at Kingston Park, but Thompson came out fighting in his programme notes, denying rumours of a financial crisis.

“Crowds have been affected across the board [by global economic problems], but I have committed to this club,” Thompson wrote. “We recognise the reality of our league position and I have made funds available for signings.”

Steve Bates, Thompson's director of rugby, believed that the victory was the starting point of Newcastle's recovery and vindication of the players' efforts and belief in their systems when results were going against them. A week after a seven-try demolition by London Irish, though, the buffeting winds and their ability to master the conditions came as blessed relief. Against the wind, Gloucester punched the ball up in the first half in a simple effort to wind the clock down but were outmanoeuvred by Rory Clegg getting the ball wide to Williams, who escaped Morgan's clutches for his fourth try in four games.

Ryan said that he had rarely known conditions as bad, but a burst by Nick Wood gave Rory Lawson the chance to wriggle his way over within three minutes of the resumption. Olly Barkley converted but it was as good as it got for Gloucester, who succumbed to May's late strike and hard yards by a Newcastle team, who were collectively presented with the sponsor's man-of-the-match award.

Scorers: Newcastle Falcons: Try: Williams (25min). Conversion: Clegg. Penalty goal: May (72). Gloucester: Try: Lawson (42). Conversion: Barkley.

Scoring sequence (Newcastle first): 7-0 (half-time), 7-7, 10-7.

Newcastle Falcons: T May; D Williams, J Noon, T Tu'ipulotu, T Visser; R Clegg (rep: S Jones, 41), M Young; D Wilson, R Vickers (rep: M Thompson, 62), C Hayman, T Swinson, G Parling, P Dowson, E Williamson (rep: B Wilson, 70), A Balding (rep: M Sorenson, 62).

Gloucester: O Morgan (rep: R Lamb, 48); M Watkins, M Tindall (rep: A Allen, 65), O Barkley, M Foster; W Walker, R Lawson; A Dickinson (rep: N Wood, 41), A Titterrell (rep: O Azam, 41; sin-bin, 80), C Nieto, M Bortolami (rep: W James, 66), A Brown, A Strokosch (rep: Titterrell, 80+2), A Satala, L Narraway.

Referee: T Wigglesworth.

Attendance: 5,026.