Phil Dowson praises Northampton's comeback in win over Gloucester

Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Phil Dowson hailed his side's comeback in the win over Gloucester in the recently concluded Gallagher Premiership encounter at Kingsholm.

A double from Curtis Langdon and tries from Alex Mitchell and Alex Coles meant Northampton Saints dominated the first 38 minutes of the game with a 7-24 lead.

Nevertheless, yellow card to Rory Hutchinson allowed Gloucester to bounce back with tries from Chris Harris, Matias Alemanno and Santiago Carreras which meant the Cherry and Whites had a 29-24 lead by the end of the third quarter.

Despite, losing momentum, Northampton's decisive moment came in the 63rd minute when when Fin Smith converted Tom Litchfield’s superb try making it 29-31 and they had the fortune on their side as Adam Hastings' penalty goal drifted wide in the added minutes.

“Maybe too exciting!” said Dowson to the club's official website. “I thought we made a lot of errors; we weren’t quite good enough in certain aspects of our game.

“But what we didn’t lack was graft and heart and the ability to work for each other and I think that just about got us through.

“We came out well in the first half. We knew Gloucester were going to come out roaring in front of a full house [at Kingsholm]. Despite their recent run of results, they’re a very good team and so we were expecting them to come out flying.

“I thought we started really well but as the half wore on, we conceded in injury time in that first half and also got a yellow card and that really swings the momentum. Then they came out in the second half and built on that momentum, we didn’t.”