Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted there was a feeling of relief in the changing room after his side held on to claim a narrow 35-34 win over Newcastle.
An entertaining encounter at Kingston Park saw Craig Wright cancel out Jamie Blamire’s opener and after Brett Connon restored Newcastle’s lead with a penalty kick, Northampton took control just before the break when Luke Green, Fin Smith and debutant Will Glister all scored.
Connor Doherty struck for the hosts early in the second half and although Tom James crossed for Saints, tries from Alex Hearle and Ben Stevenson sparked a potential late comeback.
With four minutes to go, Falcons got within touching distance when Max Pepper grounded following a brilliant sprint, but Northampton managed to withstand late pressure to clinch victory by just one point.
Dowson said: “I think the feeling in the changing room was clearly one of relief, but also an emotional high because you’ve had to work so hard for it because you’ve dug in for it.
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“Actually they’re the ones you remember when you squeak past by a point after Falcons haven’t come back.
“There’s a mixture of relief and euphoria, as after most games.
“A couple of them are going to stay up in Newcastle and have a night out, I think that’s good as well with a long weekend over Easter, and we’ll rebuild for Bristol next week.”
A tight victory ends a three-game losing run in the Premiership for Northampton, who remain third-from-bottom in the table.
Despite a frustrating season for the reigning Premiership champions, they have enjoyed success in Europe and set up a Champions Cup semi-final clash with Leinster, but Dowson is now targeting a good run in the league
“I think the Dublin game we’ll have to take into context, but really we want to climb the league,” he added.
“We’re not happy being sat in eighth and we want to string some performances together, our away record has been poor this season and it’s good to get the monkey off the back to a degree.
“That experience with some young players, first Premiership start for Will Glister, Craig Wright, Iakopo Mapu will stand us in good stead when we try and push forward this season.”
Newcastle senior coach Alan Dickens admitted the result was “disappointing” after his team came within reach of a memorable win on home soil, but praised the team’s character.
Standing in for the suspended Steve Diamond, who is serving a six-match ban, Dickens said: “We’re disappointed because one of the things we talked about at half-time was, ‘let’s create a memory here’, if we can come back from this, it’s something we will all as a group remember forever.
“As I say, we just fell a little bit short.
“Disappointed, but in terms of where the club has been and the players have been in the last two years, it’s a massive pat on the back for them sticking at it and putting in a good performance.”
