Saints 'in a good space' after concluding pre-season campaign at Glasgow

The black, green and gold were eventually edged out as their hosts scored two tries in the final 15 minutes to secure the win at Scotstoun Stadium.

Saints scored five tries on the night, with Tom Pearson and George Hendy doubling up and Callum Chick notching his first score in Northampton colours.

But it wasn't to be enough to earn a win in the second and final pre-season fixture before the competitive action starts with a PREM Rugby Cup game at Saracens next Friday.

"We've talked a lot about our performance and the game doesn't lie," Dowson said. "We knew we would find out a lot about our group and where we need to improve.

"There was lots that was positive about this evening: I thought some of the first half was excellent and there were lots of young fellas there getting experience of what it takes to compete at this level.

"It's hard to keep the level high when you're making so many changes in games and we put pressure on the lads in terms of putting them in different positions to make sure we're really adaptable.

"It's tricky and it's something that hopefully over the next couple of weeks will iron itself out with longer minutes, smaller benches and fewer changes.

"We want to make sure we continue to step it up, and Saracens next week will be another step up.

"We're slowly building and I think we're in a good space."

Saints gave first minutes of pre-season to several players who didn't feature in the 40-28 win at Bedford Blues last Friday.

And Dowson said: "Lots of guys hadn't played for a long time and it was the first game of the season for guys like Hutch (Rory Hutchinson) and Manny (Iyogun).

"We had guys playing for the first time like Danilo (Fischetti), Chicky (Callum Chick) and Cleopas (Kundiona). I thought they were all excellent and they've fitted in so well.

"We'll have a couple of beers tonight and that will help us connect and be more cohesive moving forward."

Asked about his selection plan for the cup clash with Saracens, Dowson said: "It's obviously injury dependent and we've got to get through a couple of training days, England training days as well, so we'll wait and see how people come out of that.

"We'll wait and see what the outcome was from this game and we'll make a decision with all roads leading to PREM round one (against Exeter Chiefs on September 28)."