Steve Diamond praised the character of his Newcastle Falcons charges, but admitted the strength of Sale Sharks’ bench was a telling factor in Sunday’s 35-14 home loss.

In front of a season-high home crowd of 8,361 the Falcons were in the fight at 14-14 around the hour mark, only for their northern rivals to power away at the end.

“For 60 minutes we got the kind of reaction we wanted after the Bristol game, but we ran out of steam a bit against a quality side,” said the consultant director of rugby.

“By that I don’t mean fitness, because these lads are all fit and the S&C staff have done a great job. I just thought Sale showed their player class with the bench they brought on, and they made a telling difference at the end.”

Having been on the end of a heavy defeat at Bristol in their previous outing, Diamond said: “I was more interested with how we responded from the result last week.

“You can put skill and knowledge into people to help improve them, but you can’t put character or heart into them. I was interested to see what character our guys showed today, and to be fair to them I thought it was commendable.

“There are at least some positives and it’s a game we can review properly, unlike last week.

“In terms of the outcome, it was probably a combination of us wearing out and Sale bringing on a quality bench, and then fairly simple things like scoring a try and then messing up from the re-start. That gave Sale a lot of pressure, but credit to them because they did the job in the end.

“We had seven minutes of goal-line pressure in the first half and only scored once, which is probably where we are at the moment as a team.

“We’re short of a few carriers, and those are the guys I will be bringing in during the summer. They’ll be hardened lads who have played 100 games at the Premiership or equivalent level, and it will give us something else.”

Thanking the supporters as Kingston Park hosted its biggest Falcons crowd in five and a half years, Diamond said: “The people are voting with their feet – two season-high crowds in a row.

“These are very proud people up here, they love their sport and they’re getting behind us.

“I think most people can see what we’re trying to do. Yeah, there’s obvious frustration at not getting that win, but the support has been great and I want to thank everyone who came along and got behind the lads.

“Even with the disappointment of defeat they stuck around until the end and spent ages mingling with the players after the final whistle, which I think is a great credit to them and the club.”