Newcastle Falcons started the new year with a defeat as Harlequins ground out a Gallagher Premiership victory on Friday at Kingston Park.

The visitors led 14-7 at the break and went ahead on nine minutes when No.8 James Chisholm picked and went from 20 metres out, steaming between the posts for a try converted by England fly-half Marcus Smith.

The Londoners kicked a penalty to the right corner in search of try number two but were thwarted when Kiran McDonald stole the resulting line-out – the Falcons’ cause not helped by kicking the ball out on the full on three occasions inside the opening quarter.

Newcastle grew into the game and enjoyed a string of incursions into the Quins’ half, kicking a penalty to the corner and seeing their maul held up after visiting lock Irne Herbst was sin-binned for a high tackle on Richard Palframan.

The Falcons finally got the rewards that their pressure deserved on 33 minutes when they kicked a penalty to the left corner, working a sequence of pick-and-go near the posts before flinging the ball wide for Adam Radwan to score in the right corner.

Brett Connon slotted the touchline conversion to draw the sides level, but Harlequins nudged back ahead three minutes before the interval when Smith scored a converted try – a maul in the right corner seeing a long, looping pass floated infield to the England man, who by this stage had been moved to full-back.

That left the Londoners 14-7 up at half-time, and they extended that margin by three points during the early stages of the second period when a late tackle handed Smith a simple penalty from 20 metres out.

Newcastle’s quest for a foothold in the game drew a blank when they kicked a penalty to the corner but were turned over in phase attack a moment later, but they at least had some front-foot ball with Philip van der Walt, Freddie Lockwood and Alex Hearle among their willing carriers.

That pattern repeated itself on the hour mark when another penalty was sent to the corner only for the resulting phases to see Harlequins winning a jackal turnover, but the visiting defence was finally breached again on 66 minutes.

It took a TMO referral to confirm the score, but Ben Redshaw was the beneficiary when Ben Stevenson’s hack ahead bounced back off the corner post and stayed in play – Redshaw gleefully diving on the loose ball.

Connon’s touchline conversion cut the deficit to three points, but Harlequins sucked the noise out of the crowd by going up the other end almost straight from the re-start and adding a third converted try when hooker Jack Walker scored from a driving maul down the right.

Oscar Beard and Sam Riley removed all doubt with late tries, with a season-high home crowd having been in attendance.

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Ben Redshaw, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Connor Doherty (Oli Spencer, 61), 11 Ben Stevenson (Louis Brown, 77), 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart (Max Pepper, 77); 1 Murray McCallum (Micky Rewcastle, 77), 2 Jamie Blamire (Ollie Fletcher, 77), 3 Richard Palframan (Callum Hancock, 72), 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Kiran McDonald (John Hawkins, 61), 6 Freddie Lockwood, 7 Tom Gordon (Philip van der Walt, 40), 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Scorers – Tries: Adam Radwan, Ben Redshaw. Conversions: Brett Connon 2.

Harlequins: 15 Nick David, 14 Rodrigo Isgro (Jarrod Evans, 16), 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Luke Northmore, 11 Cadan Murley (captain), 10 Marcus Smith; 9 Will Porter, 1 Fin Baxter(Wyn Jones, 53), 2 Jack Walker, 3 Titi Lamositele (Dillon Lewis, 53), 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Dino Lamb (Irne Herbst, 24), 6 Jack Kenningham, 7 Will Evans (Alex Dombrandt, 54), 8 James Chisholm.

Scorers – Tries: James Chisholm, Marcus Smith, Jack Walker, Oscar Beard, Sam Riley. Conversions: Marcus Smith 5. Penalties: Marcus Smith 1.

Referee: Sara Cox. Attendance: 7,114.