Any win will do

Our Falcons won their first Anglo-Welsh Cup match for more than three years last night to jump to the top of Pool One in this competition. It may seem a long time since the 'Rugby for a tenner' promotion starring Joe McDonnell for the match against Newport Gwent Dragons in November 2007, when 7,000-plus turned up at Kingston Park, indeed it is, but last night was a much more important game.

It wasn't perfect but we need any win we can get at the moment to try to get some morale and confidence.

Alan Tait named a stronger side than we probably saw in this cup last season, with Jimmy Gopperth captain on his LV= Cup debut. James Fitzpatrick made his first start and Grant Shiells and Kieran Brookes were teamed up from the beginning for the first time since Sale last season. Ed Williamson also returned from injury but ironically, considering the same thing happened to Owen Hargreaves of Manchester United earlier in the day, lasted less than ten minutes.

On a night on which the Falcons seemed intent on practising their kicking game, Gopperth sent a chip over to the right after five minutes and Luke Fielden caught the ball, beating the defence to score under the posts giving the skipper an easy conversion. The great start was improved just minutes later by a penalty.

Newcastle's play wasn't overly pretty and they were forced to use the boot to clear under pressure from Ospreys, but led by Fitzpatrick the hosts' defence held out before a further penalty from Gopperth, although Matthew Morgan knocked over a couple for Ospreys before the break.

The Falcons may well have still been recovering from a half-time Tweet (you had to be there) when

Gareth Owen scored a try just a few minutes into the second 40, although Morgan couldn't hit the potentially-equalising conversion.

The second half was again competitive on the cold KP pitch, and the Falcons attacked looking to get the subdued crowd going. Fielden put some daylight between the teams with his second try on the right after a move along the line, just managing to touch down, although Gopperth couldn't convert.

Two more penalties from Morgan reduced our lead to a single point, and with ten minutes left the away fly-half stepped up for a penalty that would put Ospreys in front for the first time. However, the kick bounced out off the bar – what a let-off!

The Falcons managed to hang on to the lead for the final ten minutes, although to be fair I didn't think Ospreys looked very dangerous last night. They did have a lot of their top players missing but you can only beat what is in front of you and the Falcons now have something to play for in the LV= Cup. A win at Harlequins next week would be most welcome too.

I am sure there are many times that we have all disagreed with the man-of-the-match awards, but last night I think everyone must have agreed that James Fitzpatrick put in an immense performance in defence, and though he did not get the ball in attack as often as I would have liked, when he did he tended to get in front of the tacklers. A rough diamond perhaps but one who should be given more opportunities to polish his game.

Shiells and Brookes (and later Micky Ward and Jamie Hall) held up well in the scrum too after the debacle at Northampton. I like the look of these two very much as well.