The match saw Northampton blood a group of their young stars, with the likes of Pater, Edoardo Todaro, Jack Lawrence, Siep Walta and Lumley all featuring in their first match since graduating from Saints’ Under-18s set-up.
And it was the performances of those up-and-coming players that particularly impressed the Saints Director of Rugby.
Dowson said: “The first-year Academy players have been outstanding to a man, and to see people like James Pater, Edoardo Todaro and Jack Lawrence come on has been fantastic.
“It shows what a great job Mark Hopley is doing with the Academy and it shows how hard these players are working.”
Saints were defeated in their last outing to Bedford, losing out 33-24 in the season opener back in 2023, and struggled for form away from home last term as they secured just one victory away from cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens in the Gallagher PREM.
And Dowson was happy to get the monkey off their back early this term, securing their first win on the road.
“It’s always nice to win a game and that puts us in a really nice position to head into Glasgow with some different players getting some opportunities as well,” Dowson said. “There will be a few guys coming back from injury.
“At the back end of last year and with the England camp, there’s a few soft tissue injuries with various players so we’re slowly getting those guys back.
“The great thing about this Glasgow game is that we can manage minutes, we can give Sam Graham 20 or 30 minutes and not worry too much about it, which we can’t do against Sarries in the PRC, which is a bit of a bugbear of mine.
“Against Glasgow we can make sure we manage guys before we get into the fire of it.”