The sight of Dean Richards prowling the touchline here used to be a familiar one. This was the first time we had seen it in nearly five years, his tenure at Harlequins having ended in some controversy when his touchline activity drifted into the ungentlemanly.

This time he was visiting as coach of Newcastle, the side he has guided back to Premiership status, just as he had Quins. This time he was prowling because his new charges found themselves minutes away from a famous victory that would surely have ended any prospect of a return to obscurity for Richards or the Falcons.

Having trailed 12-3 at the break, Newcastle had dominated the third quarter to pull things back to 12-9 with half an hour to play. Then, with their scrum dominant and the wind behind, Alex Tait crashed over after a flowing move to establish a 14-12 lead for the visitors with 10 minutes remaining. The prowling grew ever more animated as the last 10 minutes wore on.

Quite apart from their scrum issues, Harlequins, missing a host of players through injury and international call-ups, had looked disjointed for much of the game, lifting the second-half siege only once when Ben Botica sparked a break-out.

But their lineout and drive was one weapon of strength throughout, and they reverted to it. A series of them with five minutes to go forced Newcastle into penalty after penalty, then a yellow card, before Botica slotted the penalty with five minutes to go to re-establish a lead that was buffed up by another penalty right at the death to keep alive their chance of a play-off place.

Richards was not the only one making a return to familiar territory. Rory Clegg and Argentinian Gonzalo Tiesi have also served spells at The Stoop. There had been high hopes for Clegg, not least because of his smooth passing game. His sights were out, though, firing pass after pass to no one in particular early on. But for that, Newcastle might have had Harlequins in some trouble earlier than they did, for they were matching Quins physically, playing into a chill wind. And they might have won had he not hit the post twice with penalty attempts, once in each half.

The home team's set piece was far from secure, but when they did get that lineout and drive going, tries followed. Two in the first half earned them a 12-0 lead by the half-hour mark. Out of sorts they may have seemed, but when they concentrated it looked easy. They drove close from one lineout in the 10th minute, whipped it wide to Ugo Monye on the left, then back right via a glorious Nick Easter back-hander, and Ollie Lindsay-Hague ghosted through for the first try.

The second also followed a driven lineout, this one stopped a metre short, when Karl Dickson put Sam Smith over in the corner. Botica converted from the touchline, having missed a sitter of a penalty in the fifth minute.

It was turning into quite a day for penalties – 34 overall, in other words pretty much one for every minute of ball in play. Having copped it for most of the first quarter, Newcastle then began to benefit from JP Doyle's whistle. Clegg landed a beauty into the wind on the half-hour to put Newcastle on the board, then landed two more in the first 10 minutes of the second half to cut Harlequins' lead to 12-9.

But he found that glorious passing range of his in the build-up to their try, setting Noah Cato free down the right with a laser-sharp cut-out pass. Cato was cut down in Quins' 22, but, after Lawson had hit it up and the excellent Jamie Helleur had turned it back inside on the left, Tait took the scoring pass from Ryan Shortland to force Quins' hand in the endgame.

It made for an uncomfortable final 10 minutes for Richards. But he has known worse in these parts.