Opposition view: Glasgow boss Smith impressed with 'outstanding' Saints star

Mitchell overcame gifting Glasgow an intercept try early on to produce another sparkling scrum-half showing.

The England star set the tone on a night when Saints stormed Scotstoun, where the Warriors had previously only lost once during the previous two years.

And Smith was certainly impressed with the Saints No.9.

"I obviously must compliment the Saints,” Smith said. "Everyone who watched the game can see how well they prepped for us.

"They stopped our set piece very, very well and they didn't allow us any joy, especially in the first half.

"I thought Mitchell was outstanding – his kicking performance was exceptional.

"We put ourselves under a bit of pressure in the first half because we couldn't get out of our half the way we should have.

"He (Mitchell) just put in a phenomenal performance with the way he got them going forward and he complemented the hard work they did defensively.”

Glasgow struggled to live with Saints during a first half in which Phil Dowson's men scored three tries.

And Smith said: "I'm disappointed with the first half because we looked like we were surprised by what Northampton brought to us.

"We reacted second half and we fought back but there was a little bit of frustration because we couldn't come away with two bonus points.

"It's an easy fix because we all know we've got to start well. It's a trend that's followed us in the URC in the past few weeks so we've got to start better.

"Nothing's lost yet, there's hard work ahead for us and there are one or two things we can adjust to make sure we produce a better product next week.

"We have all our processes in place so we're going to look at it clearly and see what needs to improve.

"It's a little bit of adapting to the urgency of other teams, which Northampton proved is needed, so it's small things and hopefully we can get a win on the road."