FOR all their attempts at slick handling, Newcastle Falcons again struggled to finish off their moves in a disappointing Parker Pen European Challenge Cup tie yesterday.

They wanted a comfortable cushion to take to the second leg in France next Sunday, but now face a difficult task to reach the third round and will have to recall Jonny Wilkinson, if he is fit.

Director of Rugby Rob Andrew said: "Jonny is progressing and if there is any chance of him being fit we will let you know.

"It was another frustrating day because we wanted to be 15 points clear, but we have to give credit to them for their defence.

"The shape of the way we are trying to play has started to come together in the last few weeks. The players are starting to understand it and it is just the finishing touch which is lacking.

"It will come, but against defences as good as this you have to work hard for your openings and take them when they arise.

"We have risen to the occasion in France before and there's no reason why we can't do it again."

Although 4,950 turned up to watch, the crowd was down on the first round against Spanish club Valladolid, when the Falcons already had a 60-point lead from the first leg.

Given the quality of yesterday's opposition, the dwindling attendance suggested either that the World Cup bubble is bursting or the Falcons need to win more regularly and score more tries to maintain interest.

They made liberal use of decoy runners, but there was too much over-complication in their efforts to spread the ball wide and not enough runners hitting the ball at pace. As in the previous week's defeat by Harlequins, the Falcons also gave the ball away far too often.

The visitors were without five internationals - Olivier Magne, Olivier Brouzet, Tony Marsh, Aurelien Rougerie and Thibaut Privat, while Gerald Merceron stayed on the bench.

They included former Australia and Leicester player Pat Howard at centre, and he said afterwards that some of the big guns would be back next week.

Monferrand had clearly come to Kingston Park with the intention of mounting some serious French resistance rather than displaying any Gallic flair.

There were a couple of early sniping runs from Falcons' scrum half James Grindal, a late replacement for Hall Charlton, who failed a fitness test on an ankle injury.

Montferrand's combative instincts were evident when centre Geoff Messina took out Dave Walder with a shuddering tackle off the ball. Walder kicked the penalty to touch and after Stuart Grimes won the ball flanker Jon Dunbar drove into the 22, only for the Falcons to lose the ball.

Dunbar again made ground from an inside pass after Newcastle took a quick penalty on halfway. He found shaven-headed centre Mark Mayerhofler in support, but his pass went astray.

Dunbar, preferred to Epi Taione, continued to be involved and featured with full back Joe Shaw and winger Tom May when play was cleverly switched to the narrow side.

The ball was switched back to the right, but Newcastle were penalised for diving into a ruck ten metres from the line.

They finally scored after 24 minutes when Hugh Vyvyan won a line-out on the 22 and May came off the right wing to burst down the middle, finding Grimes in support. The lock threw a long pass to left winger Ben Gollings, who squeezed into the corner then added an excellent conversion.

After 33 minutes Walder, again struggling to fill Wilkinson's boots, kicked straight to an opponent, who booted the ball down to the home 22. Lock Craig Hamilton covered back and tidied up well, but when he was caught Newcastle were again penalised for diving in and Jerome Gendre kicked the penalty from 32 metres to make it 7-3 at half-time.

Newcastle piled on even more pressure after the break, but couldn't find a way over the line. They kicked a penalty to the corner after a burst by replacement hooker Nick Makin, but his throw at the resulting line-out failed to secure possession.

Makin then had the chance to score on the right wing following a high-speed counter-attack up the left, but the pass from Shaw asked a little too much of someone lacking a winger's pace.

After ten minutes camped in the visitors' 22, during which they ran two penalties, the Falcons finally opted to go for goal and Gollings made it 10-3 after 58 minutes.

Newcastle sent on Taione for Dunbar and he appeared in midfield several times as they continued to probe for openings which refused to appear.

The match ended with Walder almost going over in the right corner, but again the ball was lost and Montferrand hacked it into touch to the accompaniment of a merciful final whistle.