Familiar tale for boss Phil as Saints are beaten by Gloucester

Dowson's side were profligate at one end of the pitch and porous at the other as they suffered yet another loss on the road in the Gallagher Premiership.

They have won just a single away league game during this campaign, the one at Wasps, which was wiped from the table after the Coventry-based club's demise.

And at Gloucester on Saturday night, Dowson expressed his frustration as many of the same problems came back to haunt Saints.

"I'm sick of saying that we get into the opposition 22 and we cough up so much ball, whether it's an intercept, whether it's a turnover, whether it's a kick through that doesn't go to hand," said the Saints boss.

"We're profligate with those opportunities and we're not converting enough of them.

"It's not a new thing and I appreciate it's frustrating for the fans, but it's something we're working very hard on.

"In defence, I thought we were very poor in terms of missing tackles, not getting our alignment right and doing some strange things in terms of that.

"In the second half, it was our discipline and we gave a lot more penalties away and again gave a yellow card away.

"They are similar issues that we are aware of and we're trying to work on, but they're not quick fixes.

"We had something around 60 per cent possession but the opportunities they had, they took, and the chances we had, we didn't.

"It's incredibly frustrating.

"Some of the problems are the same but in the first half it wasn't catastrophic. They obviously scored too many points, but the score was 19-12 and it was still a score game and it wasn't the end of the world.

"But in the second half we gave too many points away, lost the territory battle and gave a lot of the ball away.

"The problem with not converting scores is a repeated problem, the problem with discipline is a repeated problem, the first-half issue with defence is one of those things we're alive to, but it's not one of those things that has been a huge issue."