'It's the joy of the game' - Dowson delighted as Saints hold on to beat Falcons
Phil Dowson praised the mindset of his Saints players after they held their nerve to edge out Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park on Friday night.
The black, green and gold won 35-34 as Tarek Haffar secured a breakdown penalty with the clock in the red to seal a bonus-point success.
It was Saints' first away win in the Gallagher Premiership since January 2024, and they earned it despite a huge amount of rotation and injury issues.
"I'm just trying to bring the blood pressure down and calm Sam Vesty down!" Dowson said.
"It's the joy of the game, on a knife edge, that's the excitement, that's the enjoyment of it.
"We haven't got a great record away from home and we talked about that at length this week.
"We really tried to identify those elements that are important away from home and we said we'd have to be gritty because Newcastle are a gritty team and it's going to be tough.
"I was happy with our ability to stay in the game, our ability to come back from setbacks, our mindset away from home and how hard we worked for each other.
"Also we had guys like Will Glister making his first Premiership start, Craig Wright making his first Premiership start. I thought they were both excellent and it was great to see them get tries because that's the next generation coming through."
Saints had moved into a 35-15 lead with just 23 minutes to go, but Newcastle kept fighting and took the game to the wire.
But this time, the black, green and gold came out on the right side of the result on the road.
Dowson added: "I've talked about it a lot in terms of the players that left, this group that's coming through are trying to find their way, and one of those is experiencing heartbreaking losses away from home.
"We've lost the last two away games by a total of five points. We lost by two points at Quins, three points at Sale so we've been there or thereabouts with lots of changes and disruption.
"Tonight was by no means perfect and there were lots of things that we can be better at, and we will be.
"It was a good experience and a few of the boys are staying up tonight to celebrate, which is a good thing... I hope.
"I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Bristol next week."