Leeds staged a miraculous recovery to claim their first-ever win over Newcastle in a seesaw Zurich Premiership match at Kingston Park.

The battling Tykes fought back from 20-3 down after 35 minutes to end their seven-match losing run and leave Newcastle still looking for their first Premiership win of 2004.

Fly-half Gordon Ross fluffed a couple of early penalty chances for the visitors and the misses began to look costly when Newcastle's outside backs hit a purple patch midway through the first half to rack up a 17-point lead.

Impressive centre Mark Mayerhofler finished off a delightful handling move for the first of three tries in a 10-minute spell.

Debutant winger Daryl Lilley crossed four minutes later after second rower Craig Hamilton made his presence felt in the line and six minutes after that winger Tom May, the Premiership's leading tryscorer, brushed off Matt Cardey's weak challenge to crash over for his ninth score of the season.

Lilley put over one of the conversions, to add to an opening penalty goal, to put the home side in a seemingly unassailable 20-3 lead.

Scrum-half Alan Dickens sparked the Tykes' fightback on the stroke of half-time when he peeled off a maul to touch down by the posts and flanker Matt Salter took centre stage to turn the game on its head in the third quarter.

The former rugby league man took Ross' long pass to go through a yawning gap on 44 minutes and then on the hour he opened up the Falcons defence with a bustling run for winger Dan Scarbrough to go over for his side's third try.

Centre Andrew Snyman was mightily impressive as Leeds began to expose Newcastle's brittle defence.

Had Falcons prop Ian Peel been able to take a difficult low pass from Mayerhofler with the line open early in the second half, the outcome may have been different.

But Ross opened up an eight-point gap with a 71st-minute drop goal to provide a useful cushion as the home side launched a desperate late bid to salvage the match.

Centre Jamie Noon grabbed a fourth try to at least ensure a bonus point after Mark Wilkinson, wearing the number 10 jersey of his injured brother, had moved the ball wide but it was too little, too late to affect the outcome.