'A big headache' - Dowson left frustrated after Saints draw with Exeter

The black, green and gold were hit by a second-half surge from Exeter Chiefs, who claimed a 33-33 draw, even threatening to win it late on as they had a try ruled out for a forward pass four minutes from time.

For Saints, it was a mixed start to the new Gallagher PREM campaign as they were left to rue a game that really got away.

And Dowson said: "It's hugely disappointing and very frustrating that we've given up a 33-7 half-time lead to draw a game that should have been out of sight.

"We didn't value the ball, we didn't look after the ball for any sort of time, we kept giving them field position and possession and in this league you're going to get punished.

"We were punished time and again, and once we lost our momentum, we seemed incapable of getting it back.

"There was some really good attack in there and some pretty average defence in there, but fundamentally we didn't get beyond three phases in the second half and when we did we got into their half.

"We were very sloppy with the ball, not doing the things that we practiced, not sticking to the fundamentals, so it was a big headache.

"Some of them were unforced errors and some of them, we really need to have a dig into what pressure we were under.

"Generally it's hard to wrestle momentum back midway through a half and as it stands at the moment, having not spoken to the players yet, it's difficult to find out what the decisions were and what the leadership looked like. It's obviously not been brilliant because we haven't managed to win the game, but they might have been saying all the right things but not executing them.

"We were so good in the first half and then so poor in the second. It's not 100 per cent negative, it's not like we've lost 70 points to nil, but we've been 33-7 up at home and not converted it."