Senior coach Alan Dickens found positives to take despite his Newcastle Falcons side falling 55-19 at Gallagher Premiership leaders, Bath Rugby.

Speaking after Saturday’s defeat in the Roman City, he said: “Considering we were 12 points down and took a red card after half an hour, I thought the lads battled well.

“We got ourselves in front at the start of the second half but just couldn’t hang on to the lead, and with the quality they’ve got from the bench they were always going to end strongly.

“The main disappointment was not getting the four-try bonus point, because I thought we were good value for it and we had our chances towards the end.

“A lot of the younger lads really fronted up, and as well as Connor Doherty scoring two good tries I thought Oscar Usher came on and did well on his debut.

“He’s still a university student who has been playing at Darlington Mowden Park and hasn’t been in our system for very long, but he was physical and really threw himself into it. Micky Rewcastle has also been getting some game time and took another step forward, so it wasn’t without its positives.”

Asked about the tackle which saw Louis Brown being sent off, Dickens said: “People will have their opinions on whether or not it should have been a red card, but all I can say is the referee and TMO had a good look at it and made a decision.

“I’m not going to complain about it because they explained their thinking and had a long review over the colour of the card, and I’m sure they’ll stand by that.

“To be fair we rolled up our sleeves and got on with it, and we can’t ask much more than that.

“We missed a couple of tackles on their fly-half Donoghue, who had a good game, but we’ve really got to be putting him down when we get hold of him.

“Yes, the score did blow past 50 in the end, which probably isn’t a fair reflection, and one thing with this group is they will keep fighting for each other.

“We’ve got three tough games remaining, all against sides who are pushing for the play-offs, and we’ll look to finish the campaign positively.”