'A lot that still needs work' after Saints see off Saracens

The black, green and gold bagged the bonus-point success they needed to keep their Gallagher Premiership hopes alive at a sold-out cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

But Saracens were down to 14 men early on and still threatened to spring a late surprise as their heavily-rotated team kept fighting until the end.

And Saints boss Dowson said: "The last 10 minutes were particularly nervous and I felt myself going grey at the time.

"If you'd said at the start of the day that we'd get five points, we'd take it, but a lot of that still needs a lot of work.

"In the first half we butchered some opportunities, we created lots and then after that we tried to chase those opportunities so we tried to force things and we chased things that weren't necessary.

"The word we used at half-time was patience: patience in attack, patience in defence - we don't need to turn the ball down at every breakdown or score off every pass.

"In the last 20 minutes, I felt we dropped off quite badly and that's obviously been an issue in the past, and it's something we continue to struggle with."

Saints have moved back up to fourth, two points ahead of London Irish who have a game in hand.

Dowson's side will finish the regular season with a tricky trip to Newcastle Falcons on Friday night, concluding their campaign before Irish play again.

And Saints know they must win at Kingston Park to realistically stand any chance of securing a play-off place.

"Falcons is going to be a big challenge for us on Friday because you've seen what they're like at home," Dowson said.

"We've got to make sure we're flying into that, manage the energy in a short week and perform up there.

"We haven't been great away from home so we need to make sure we focus on that and everything else will be in the lap of the gods.”