London Irish boosted their Premiership play-off hopes and moved up to fifth as they won 34-19 at Newcastle.

Carl Fearns levelled the scores from a catch and drive soon after the break.

However, Matt Cornish and Ollie Hassell-Collins soon took Irish clear again and Paddy Jackson’s late penalty sealed a fourth league win in five.

Having lost their first seven away Premiership matches of the season, back-to-back wins on the road move the Exiles up to fifth and within two points of third-placed Leicester, but Falcons remain a place and a point above bottom side Bath after a 10th league defeat.

Irish set their stall out to run the ball at pace from the start and were rewarded inside three minutes when they moved it out to Josh Basham who barged past Michael Young to cross.

Former Falcons back row Basham then burst through a gap and was held up just yards short of the line, but the ball was recycled back to Pearson who wriggled over.

The visitors spent much of the first 25 minutes in Falcons territory and looked to be heading out of sight with a third try.

Swapping pace for power, a rolling maul sent Falcons back-pedalling towards their own line where Italy international prop Fischetti sniped over.

Newcastle needed a quick response and promptly took their first opportunity from a 5m line-out, Dalton burrowing over after Fearns was held up at the line.

Growing in confidence after another slow start, the hosts forced a series of penalties deep in Irish territory and from a tap and go, Blamire was shoved over for his sixth try of the campaign.

Falcons made it 29 tries for the season from line-outs when Fearns finished off a training ground catch and drive to level it up early in the second half.

But the Exiles rediscovered their free-flowing play to cut through the Newcastle defence and promptly restore their lead, Cornish taking the scoring pass.

Moments later England international Hassell-Collins finished off another sweeping Irish move for his 10th try of the league campaign to make it 31-19.

The visitors had a glorious chance for a sixth try following an interception from Jackson, who added nine points with the boot, but Scotland international Ben White knocked on when reaching for the line.

With three of their final four league matches at their Gtech Community Stadium stronghold – following a run of six wins in eight league matches – Irish now look serious contenders for a top-four finish.

Newcastle Falcons head coach Dave Walder:

“Their second score takes the game away. It’s a different ball game for the last 20 minutes.

“The atmosphere this morning around the place was buzzing, they came in the rain and our community team have done a great job of getting everyone through the doors. It was really disappointing that we couldn’t give them something to shout about really.

“They stuck with us and gave us some noise when we got back into it, but unfortunately, they’re probably going home disappointed – as are we with ultimately the performance that wasn’t quite there for us.”

London Irish head coach Les Kiss:

“We just lost our way a little bit, but also we talked all week about how they stay in the fight – we saw at Saracens they have people who just believe who they are and I believe Dave (Walder) has done a brilliant job with this team.

“They’re never dead and buried, they just keep coming back at you.

“Half-time we addressed that, this is what the game is, we knew this wouldn’t be an easy game, and we had to fight for every inch.

“We managed to come out of that middle third of the game and get back to the things we’re good at – a great counter-try and a few other things that kept the pressure in their half.”

Newcastle: Tait; Radwan, Moroni, Orlando, Carreras; Connon, Young (c); Brocklebank, Blamire, Davison, Dalton, De Chaves, Rubiolo, Chick, Fearns.

Replacements: Fletcher, Mulipola, Tampin, Lockwood, Marshall, Stuart, Schoeman, Lucock.

London Irish: Loader; Cinti, Joseph, Van Rensburg, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, White; Fischetti, Creevy, Hoskins, Ratuniyarawa, Simmons (c), Basham, Pearson, Cunningham-South.

Replacements: Cornish, Gigena, Chawatama, Caulfield, Rogerson, O’Sullivan, Morisi, Stokes.

Referee: Christophe Ridley.