'This is a blip not a slump' says Steve Bates

Dec 29 2009 by Nick Purewal, The Journal

NEWCASTLE Falcons might have just slipped to their third straight Guinness Premiership defeat, but Steve Bates does not believe the sequence constitutes a true slump in form or require a shift in emphasis.

Syncopated league defeats at the hands of Northampton Saints, Gloucester and Leeds Carnegie have nudged Newcastle back in the wrong direction just when they seemed to be getting their Premiership push in order.

A shaky start to the season punctuated by three draws which should have been wins left many wondering whether Falcons boss Bates had assembled a robust enough squad to challenge seriously for a Heineken Cup spot next term.

But then came league wins at Bath, at home to Worcester and impressively on the road again at London Irish to get the cogs turning and even some of the cynics wondering if this would finally be the year.

If the expectation was building into a clamour it quickly dissipated with that 28-8 Kingston Park Saints defeat though, the Falcons comfortably outmanoeuvred on their own patch.

Strong spirit might have yielded no reward at Gloucester, but then the Falcons have not won in the league at Kingsholm since the title-winning 1997-98 campaign.

So with the league’s bottom club pitching up for the Christmas fixture, Bates and his men had their eyes firmly fixed on a return to winning ways.

Defeat was never in the schedule, and neither was a seriously messy performance, no matter the poor weather conditions. It would be easy to suggest then, that a trend is once again emerging as the Falcons approach the turn of the year and Sunday’s intimidating trip to Adams Park to take on Wasps.