Newcastle took a giant leap towards the Premiership semi-finals after they beat Leicester 25-23 at the death at Welford Road on Friday.
This impressive win leaves the Falcons in third position and means the Tigers' hopes of making it into the play-offs are hanging by a thread.
Vereniki Goneva was Newcastle's star as he scored two while Ally Hogg crossed in the 80th minute before Sonatane Takulua's key extras.
For Leicester their tries came via Jonny May and Mike Fitzgerald and they'll now hope Northampton do them a favour at Wasps on Sunday.
It was fifth versus fourth in the standings going into this mouth-watering opening game of the round as both looked to make the play-offs.
And the game began brightly when former Tiger, Goneva, slipped Dan Cole on halfway before setting off for the try-line for a 7-0 advantage.
Leicester though didn't take long to respond as on six minutes Brendon O'Connor's run led to fast hands that allowed May to level matters.
Those were the only tries of the half, however, as the next 30 minutes belonged to the kickers, with Joel Hodgson's shot from 45 out moving the Falcons to 10 points before George Ford replied. That Ford kick coincided with Hodgson limping from the field in a blow for Newcastle.
Leicester would move in front for the first time on the half-hour mark after Graham Kitchener was taken out at a line-out, but just before the interval O'Connor was penalised at the ruck, which allowed Juan Pablo Socino to knock over a simple penalty. 13-13 was a fair reflection.
The second-half opening was as frantic as the first when Ben Youngs was denied an opportunistic try, following a breakout from their own line, with the match officials spotting a knock-on all the way back on the Tigers whitewash. Newcastle would breathe a huge sigh of relief.
That relief was short-lived though as Tigers made no mistake on 55 minutes as Fitzgerald smashed the ball on the chalk with a short carry.
20-13 became 23-13 on the hour mark as the Leicester scrum continued to dominate, resulting in Ford landing a long-range kick off the tee.
But Falcons and that man Goneva weren't done as renewed confidence led to the wing running over Ford for an unconverted try for 23-18.
Newcastle kept pushing and with Sione Kalamafoni in the sin-bin late on for offside, the visitors went for broke and it paid off for them. After the officials had checked the replays it was deemed that Hogg had grounded the ball which allowed Takulua the shot for glory that he took.
The scorers:
For Leicester:
Tries: May, Fitzgerald
Cons: Ford 2
Pens: Ford 3
Yellow Card: Kalamafoni
For Newcastle:
Tries: Goneva 2, Hogg
Cons: Hodgson, Takulua
Pens: Hodgson, Socino
Leicester: 15 Telusa Veainu, 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford (c), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 6 Luke Hamilton, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Mike Fitzgerald, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Greg Bateman, 18 Logovi’i Mulipola, 19 Harry Wells, 20 Mike Williams, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 Mathew Tait, 23 Jonah Holmes
Newcastle: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Vereniki Goneva, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Josh Matavesi, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Michael Young, 8 Ally Hogg, 7 Gary Graham, 6 Mark Wilson (c), 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Calum Green, 3 Scott Wilson, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Sam Lockwood
Replacements: 16 Santiago Socino, 17 Rob Vickers, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Will Witty, 20 Ryan Burrows, 21 Sonatane Takulua, 22 Juan Pablo Socino, 23 Alex Tait
Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant referees: Tim Wigglesworth, Adam Leal
TMO: Stuart Terheege
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