Newcastle (7) 14
Tries: Haydon-Wood, McGuigan Cons: Haydon-Wood 2
Exeter (7) 15
Tries: Schickerling, Innard Con: J Simmonds Pens: J Simmonds
A late Joe Simmonds penalty with four minutes to go gave Exeter a narrow one-point victory over 14-man Newcastle Falcons.
Falcons fly-half Will Haydon-Wood intercepted a pass to open the scoring after 23 minutes before Callum Chick was red-carded for a high tackle.
Close-range tries from Patrick Schickerling and Jack Innard either side of half-time put Exeter 12-7 up.
Newcastle regained the lead through George McGuigan's barnstorming run before Simmonds snatched victory.
The late defeat was hard on the 14-man Falcons who battled hard on an emotional day when they paid tribute to former coach Steve Black in a minute's silence before the game and also honoured retiring captain Mark Wilson.
Driving rain and strong winds made it a difficult opening, but Haydon-Wood defied the elements, showing perfect timing to intercept a loose pass and run 80 metres to score the opening try and add the extras himself.
But within two minutes, they lost their captain as Chick was shown a red card after his shoulder made contact with Josh Hodge's head in a strong tackle as the Chiefs full-back dropped a high ball on the halfway line.
The visitors got on the scoreboard four minutes before the break with Schickerling the beneficiary of a line-out maul. Joe Simmonds kicked the conversion to make it 7-7 at half-time.
The same tactic led to the Chiefs going ahead four minutes into the second half, with hooker Innard crashing over, but this time Simmonds missed with the boot.
But the 14 men of Newcastle hit back after 57 minutes when McGuigan broke through two tackles to dot the ball down over the line, allowing Haydon-Wood to convert and give the Falcons a 14-12 lead.
Dean Richards' men held out superbly as Exeter applied wave after wave of pressure but finally gave a scrum penalty away after 76 minutes and Simmonds held his nerve to claim a vital win for Chiefs.
The victory provides a huge boost to Exeter's play-off ambitions as they move up to fifth, while Newcastle remain 11th and without a league win since 6 November when they beat Exeter by the same 15-14 scoreline at the Chiefs' Sandy Park.
Newcastle: Brown; Penny, Wacokecoke, Orlando, Earle; Haydon-Wood, Nordli-Kelemeti; Brocklebank, McGuigan, Davison, Peterson, Robinson, Basham, Collett, Chick (capt).
Replacements: Blamire, Cade, Tampin, Farrar, Montgomery, Hodgson, Burrell, Radwan.
Red card: Chick (24 mins).
Exeter: Hodge; Woodburn, Whitten, Hendrickson, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds (capt), Maunder; Hepburn, Innard, Schickerling, Kirsten, Jenkins, S Skinner, Armand, Capstick.
Replacements: Yeandle, Moon, Street, Pearson, Grondona, Maunder, H Skinner, Cordero.
