FRIDAY night’s match against Leicester Tigers saw a lung-bursting effort, endeavour, strained sinews, the summoning-up of the last micro-percentage of energy and a team that was working in unison and digging deep together. And that was the supporters, who were a potent ingredient in this mammoth 12-9 victory.

Make no mistake, this was the game for Gloucester after a dismal run and it could not have got off to a worse start with late call-offs from Olly Morgan, James Simpson-Daniel and Nicky Robinson. However, in an attempt to avoid clichés like the plague, ‘cometh the hour, cometh the team.’ This was not a pretty match and a try looked highly unlikely for vast tracts of the 80 minutes. But it was gripping because of the closeness of the score and the importance of the final result. Technically there were many faults but I would suggest that Gloucester would have accepted a narrow win courtesy of a French footballer’s hand if that is what it required.

On the positive side, Gloucester looked as if they meant business as soon as they came onto the pitch and they had thousands willing them on. Leicester turned over more possession at the tackle and the lineout in this one game than they’d expect in a month and the hosts have to take a great deal of credit for much of it that came from ferocious tackling.

We had a very assured performance from Burns at 10 and he controlled the game while kicking all the points. I can see this young man making rapid progress up the national pecking order as he has the gift of seeming to have time, which will automatically give the rest of any side confidence if he is in charge.

Then there was Lewis at 9, who was electric when he decided to blast away. He is excitingly quick and has real gas, a commodity that is in short supply in the Cherry and White ranks. My only complaint about his performance is that he was not greedy enough and looked to pass when Leicester were probably ready to throw in the towel. He produced two electrifying breaks that were top-drawer - but neither led to what should have been formality touch-downs if the support had been as fast as him.

Then there is the contact area, where Gloucester are so predictable and generally plodding. We still go into contact when the heat comes on and there are many players who are comfortable at blasting into the nearest opponent - even though a support runner is available for the offload. This is what will split defences, but I am pretty certain that Brian Redpath and his coaches are preaching this day in, day out.

The main benefit of this victory is that the players will look at the league positions in the papers and see that they are sitting on top of Worcester, Harlequins, Bath and Leeds. This will calm some frayed nerves, which might just lead to the whole team relaxing in their performances.

When you are treading on eggshells on a losing streak, performance goes out of the window because players start thinking of the negatives and what might go wrong. Once the conveyor belt of failure is stopped, the same players can perform on auto-pilot and simply get on with the game.

The result, not the performance, was perfect. There are still major concerns around the way we labour at the breakdown and our kicking from hand still looks as if it is used because nothing else seems to present itself as an option. We still attempt sporting suicide just after any score when the opponents restart, but Leicester were ultimately worse.

I have to admit that I had some worries when our faithful started up, ‘Same old Leicester, always cheating.’ On their last visit, the visiting supporters had responded with, ‘Same old Gloucester, always losing.’ On Friday, perhaps it was a combination of the weather, an unsociable kick-off time, Leicester’s clumsiness and Gloucester’s dominance of possession and position - but the usually vociferous Tigers fans were very quiet. Long may it last!

Do you agree with Keith? Have your say below