Paul Burke landed six penalties to maintain Harlequins' 100% home record with their third Zurich Premiership victory of the season at The Stoop.

His six successes from eight attempts ended hopes of a happy return for Ben Gollings who moved to Newcastle from Harlequins during the summer.

The full back revived Newcastle's hopes of their first away victory since February when he dived in for the only try of the match in the 60th minute and contributed all his team's points.

But their chances were effectively ended when skipper Mark Andrews was sent off just six minutes later.

Referee Roy Maybank brandished the red card following a discussion with a touch judge who ruled that the South African lock had dropped his knee on Harlequins flanker Pat Sanderson.

The dismissal of Andrews took the steam out of the tremendous forward effort by Newcastle who had threatened to claw their way back into the game.

Three first-half penalties by Burke to one by Gollings enabled Harlequins to lead 9-3 at the end of a scrappy first half and it could have been more if the Quins' fly-half had not missed two more penalties and two drop-goal attempts.

Burke stretched the lead to 12-3 in the 47th minute before Newcastle stepped up the pressure.

Only some top quality defensive covering and tackling enabled Quins to repel the assault by a determined Newcastle pack which repeatedly drove for the line.

When they finally moved the ball wide they squandered the chance when centre Mark Mayerhofler supplied a forward pass to Tom May who had the line at his mercy.

But the try came when left-wing Michael Stephenson cut the Harlequins' defence open with a superb run to send Gollings over in the left corner.

That cut the Harlequins' lead to 12-8 but Burke stabilised the position three minutes later with his fifth penalty and then kicked the sixth in the 73rd minute to increase the margin to 10 points.

Gollings, who had earlier missed a penalty and conversion attempt, took his points haul to 11 with his second penalty in the 75th minute but 14-man Newcastle had left themselves too much to do against a side who, in reality, had never looked like scoring a try.

Teams:

Harlequins: Duffy, Jewell, J. Taumalolo, Deane, Monye, Burke, Willis, Jones, Tiatia, Gomez, Davison, Evans, Sanderson, Vos, Diprose.

Replacements: Fuga, Worsley, Dawson, Winters, Sheriff, Keogh, Dunne.

Pens: Burke 6.

Newcastle: Gollings, May, Noon, Mayerhofler, Stephenson, Godman, Charlton, Peel, Makin, Hurter, Archer, Andrews, Dunbar, Britz, Vyvyan.

Replacements: Ward, Thompson, Shaw, Taione, Dowson, Grindal, Hamilton.

Tries: Gollings.

Pens: Gollings 2.

Sent Off: Andrews (66).

Att: 6,523

Ref: Roy Maybank (RFU).