Dowson wants Saints to use Tigers loss as 'wake-up call' ahead of Bears battle
"If you'd given me this opportunity at the start of the season, I'd have jumped at it."
Those are the words of Saints boss Phil Dowson ahead of the final three games of the Gallagher PREM regular season.
The black, green and gold host Bristol Bears on Friday night before another home encounter, against Gloucester, and a final-day trip to Harlequins.
And Saints will be looking to get back on the horse this week after falling to a 41-17 defeat at local rivals Leicester Tigers last Saturday.
Bath had the chance to displace Dowson's men at the summit last Sunday, but they were beaten by Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park.
And though table-topping Saints haven't hit their straps of late, their boss is keen to put things in perspective.
"We don't become a bad team overnight," Dowson said. "We've got to make sure we keep some context and we're really confident in what we're capable of doing.
"If we don't do what we said we're going to do, then you get results like the one at Leicester.
"We need to strip back, make it simple and get to the heart of what our game looks like."
Reflecting on the loss at Leicester, Dowson said: "It was incredibly painful to be beaten like that at such a pivotal time in the season.
"It's hugely disappointing and nobody wears it more than the playing group and the coaching group.
"It wasn't a pleasant afternoon but we have to make sure we keep some context, keep some perspective and make sure we're better this week on the back of it.
"We've got to use it as a wake-up call as opposed to anything else."
So what went wrong for Saints at Mattioli Woods Welford Road?
"There were some technical and tactical elements," Dowson said.
"We need to create more pressure in D (defence), we need to deliver more ball from set piece and some mindset elements of when things aren't going your way, how do you get back on track?
"That's the joy of top-end sport, high performance. I watched Man City against Everton on TV in the evening and some of the best football players in the world suffer periods of pressure. (Mark) Guehi makes a backpass, Everton score and the whole team concede another very quickly afterwards, but what they then do is get back into the game and salvage a draw and that's maybe something we need to be better at: when things are going against us, how we regroup, how we regain momentum and get back into it.
"But at the same time, we haven't been bad at that. There's been lots of scenarios where we've scored late on, we've won games having had to make a comeback.
"We chalk it up to experience and we make sure we're better for it against Bristol."
The lineout has been a particular issue for Saints in recent times, and a hungry Tigers side pounced on those problems.
"I thought Leicester were excellent and we have to credit them, but at the same time we look at what we're doing from a set piece point of view and there's lots and lots of things (lineout coach) James Craig is kicking himself about and we wish we could do again, but we can't," Dowson said.
"We've got to make sure that the next time those things happen, when we have pressure like that, we respond and we're better for it.
"That's the nature of the beast and that's at the forefront of my mind."
Also coming into focus for Saints is a Bristol side who will head to Northampton on Friday night looking to repeat their big win against the black, green and gold at Ashton Gate back in November.
"They've been very good and Pat Lam's teams continue to play in the manner that you would expect," Dowson said.
"They're very, very dangerous from an attacking point of view, great individual talents, an ability to keep the ball alive, ability to put air on the ball and move teams around.
"Things that are maybe undervalued from a Bristol point of view are that they're one of the few sides in the league that haven't conceded a maul try, their scrum is hugely efficient with Ellis Genge at the heart of that, their defence, which Jordan Crane coaches, is solid and works incredibly hard, gets the ball back and they're very efficient at playing off it.
"They're a very, very talented group so we've got to make sure we focus on those threats but also what we didn't do against Leicester, which was get our game on the field."