Dowson admits Saints suffered 'old-fashioned hiding' at Ashton Gate

The black, green and gold saw their 10-match winning steak come to a crushing end as they were thrashed 52-21 by Bristol Bears.

It was the second time in as many seasons that they had shipped more than a half-century of points in a Gallagher Premiership fixture at Ashton Gate.

And boss Dowson said: "We took an old-fashioned hiding and we've got to make sure we look at that in forensic detail both as a playing group and coaching group and make sure we're better next week.

"Credit to Bristol, they played well. All the things we said about them being a dangerous side proved to be right.

"They were a very good side on the evening, way better than we were and we've got to make sure we deal with that in the most honest way possible and move forward.

"I thought we showed moments where we showed what we were capable of, but across the board and in different facets of the game Bristol were the better side.

"It's easy to be full of it when you're flying high but sometimes you take a hiding and it brings you back to earth. You have to take that medicine and move on. We'll make sure we do that.

"We're not going to throw the baby out with the bath water, we're not going to scream and shout, we're going to go to work and make sure we fix the issues from a preparation point of view and performance point of view to make sure we're better next time when we play Saracens at home.

"As you can imagine, the lads are very, very down because the vibe in the last few weeks has been very, very strong and we were excited about coming down here to challenge ourselves and we've taken a hiding.

"You can imagine what the mood is like (in the Saints dressing room) - I don't need to describe it."