Dowson delighted as 10-try Saints secure crucial win at Kingston Park

In their final game of the regular season, the black, green and gold turned on the style, scoring 10 tries as they moved seven points clear of fifth-placed London Irish in the Gallagher Premiership standings.

Irish must now win at Saracens and at home to Exeter Chiefs to knock Saints out of play-off contention.

And Dowson was happy to see his side do their job on a night when all of their class was on full show.

"Our ability to execute was very good," the Saints boss said.

"After the setback of the (Adam) Radwan try at the start, I thought we never really looked back.

"We showed good resilience in that space, carried on playing our game plan and worked our tails off to snuff them out and put our game on the pitch.

"The lads were trying to do that last week, they were trying to do that against Irish away but we were just so much more efficient at it this week.

"It's all we could control and it's what we executed.

"I was delighted with some of the elements we've been working hard on at training and seeing them live in a game."

Alex Mitchell was at the heart of all that was good about Saints against Newcastle, producing an early try and a contender for tackle of the season, on Radwan.

"He was brilliant," Dowson said.

"This surface suits him, the ball comes up quick, he wants to make decisions to put defenders under pressure. If you make the wrong decision, he's gone.

"He's a class act.

"I thought his kicking was very good into the wind in the first half, which was tough, and that scramble tackle showed a huge amount of what he's been working on in his defensive game."

Tom Collins was named man of the match after an all-action performance, which included two tries and a try-saving tackle of his own.

"He and (Mateo) Carreras actually made that game very exciting because of their ability to move full pace sideways,” Dowson said. “They can change direction at full tilt, which is hard to defend.

"TC has always been very good at that, it's a massive differential for him and we saw what a quality player he is tonight."

Saints will be certain of a play-off trip to Saracens if Mark McCall's men beat London Irish at StoneX Stadium on Sunday.

Sarries rested international players in their defeat at Saints last Saturday but they have brought back the likes of Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell to face Irish.

"I'll watch the game," Dowson said.

"I'll have my kids with me and they'll be shouting for Saracens for the first time ever.

"I'll watch it, see what happens and work out where we go from there.

"I wasn't surprised to see them pick their England players because one of the nuances between the league and the country is that those players have to have a week off after the Six Nations. Mark McCall made the decision to make last week that week off and there's no reason why he wouldn't bring them straight back in to get them into stride for the run-in."