Senior coach Alan Dickens admitted nine sloppy minutes cost his Newcastle Falcons side dear on Friday as they fell to a 35-34 defeat at home to Gallagher Premiership champions Northampton Saints.

Conceding three tries in a chaotic end to the first half, Dickens nonetheless spoke of his pride at the manner in which the Falcons battled back into the contest.

“That end to the first half was massive on a really frustrating evening, but I’m enthused by the way the boys battled back and took it right to the wire,” said Dickens.

“We did a lot of good things during the first half and put them under pressure, but we made things tough for ourselves by shipping those tries just before the break.

“Of course that was incredibly disappointing, but the players spoke really positively during half-time about coming back into it and trying to pull off a special comeback. We very nearly did it, and I’m told it was the first time in more than two years we’ve scored a four-try bonus point at home in the Premiership.”

Dickens added: “We were rightly criticised earlier in the season for being a team which doesn’t pick up bonus points, but we scored one at Bristol, another at Exeter and then two this evening. It’s a big step forward for us, and as disappointed as we are by not winning, I feel like we’re making genuine progress.

“I thought Elliott Obatoyinbo created a lot of attacking opportunities before he went off, and we struggled a bit at first when he went off in terms of readjusting. We gave away too many post-contact metres in the first half but our chop tackling was much better later on, and we produced some good attacking tries.

“I’m generally a positive person and I’m very proud of the players. It would have been easy for us to roll over when they had that surge at the end of the first half, but the lads here have a got a lot of fight in them. They’re a brilliant group to work with, and as disappointed as we are by the defeat, we’re taking forward steps here.

“Myself and Lee Dickson are driving the attack, and it’s starting to look a bit more like what we ultimately want it to. Of course we need to stop those soft tries which are always going to hurt you, but I really don’t feel like we’re a million miles away.”