Opposition view: Dickens feels Falcons took 'big step forward' against Saints
Senior coach Alan Dickens felt the performance Newcastle Falcons put in against Saints on Friday night was 'a big step forward'.
Falcons pushed Saints all the way, recovering after going 35-15 down to lose by just a single point in the Gallagher Premiership encounter.
They picked up a try bonus point in the process, something they hadn't done at home for more than two years.
And Dickens told the Falcons website: "We were rightly criticised earlier in the season for being a team which doesn’t pick up bonus points, but we scored one at Bristol, another at Exeter and then two this evening.
"It’s a big step forward for us, and as disappointed as we are by not winning, I feel like we’re making genuine progress.
“I thought Elliott Obatoyinbo created a lot of attacking opportunities before he went off, and we struggled a bit at first when he went off in terms of readjusting.
"We gave away too many post-contact metres in the first half but our chop tackling was much better later on, and we produced some good attacking tries.
“I’m generally a positive person and I’m very proud of the players.
"It would have been easy for us to roll over when they had that surge at the end of the first half, but the lads here have a got a lot of fight in them.
"They’re a brilliant group to work with, and as disappointed as we are by the defeat, we’re taking forward steps here.
“Myself and Lee Dickson are driving the attack, and it’s starting to look a bit more like what we ultimately want it to.
"Of course we need to stop those soft tries which are always going to hurt you, but I really don’t feel like we’re a million miles away.”
Falcons had moved into 7-0 and 10-7 leads early in the game against Saints, but Phil Dowson's men responded by grabbing three quickfire tries to make it 28-10 at the break.
Newcastle kept battling though, and they had three minutes to win it after pulling back to 35-34 behind.
“That end to the first half was massive on a really frustrating evening, but I’m enthused by the way the boys battled back and took it right to the wire,” Dickens said.
“We did a lot of good things during the first half and put them under pressure, but we made things tough for ourselves by shipping those tries just before the break.
“Of course that was incredibly disappointing, but the players spoke really positively during half-time about coming back into it and trying to pull off a special comeback.
"We very nearly did it, and I’m told it was the first time in more than two years we’ve scored a four-try bonus point at home in the Premiership.”