Gallagher Premiership: Northampton earn first win of the season by beating winless Newcastle

Northampton Saints' Fin Smith kicked three penalties and a conversion in their their first Premiership win of the season at Kingston Park

Northampton earned their first Premiership win of the season by beating winless Newcastle 16-14 at Kingston Park.

Curtis Langdon dotted down for the only try of the match in the second half, with Fin Smith adding the conversion and three more penalties.

The majority of the hosts' points came via the boot of Brett Connon, who missed a late conversion to level the scores.

But the away side prevailed - despite a late Iwan Stephens try and a yellow card for George Hendy - to hand their hosts a third defeat from three Premiership games.

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Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson says 21-year-old Smith's prolific points-kicking performance will lay the foundations for him to scale even greater heights.

He said: "I think his game management was fantastic today. He's only going to get better, I think he's 21, or 22?

"So there's only going to be improvements and experiences like today will help his development no end.

"That's something he's spoken about during the week and put an emphasis on that."

After defeats to Sale and Bristol, Northampton finally got their campaign up and running.

Dowson said: "It was everything we expected, it was a scrap. We expected them to put up the performance they did I suppose, so to come out the other end of that was really pleasing.

"I think the first three games are a credit to the Premiership - the closeness of our (games) over the last three weeks, one decision or an X-factor could have got us a win in the last couple of games.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't get over the line with them, but today was really pleasing - to do it like we did, with a man down as well."

Langdon dotted down for the only try of the match in the second half, with Smith adding the extras and a treble of penalties.

The majority of the hosts' points came via the boot of Brett Connon, who missed a late conversion to level the scores.

But the away side prevailed - despite Stephens' late effort and a yellow card for George Hendy - to hand their hosts a third defeat from three Premiership games.

Falcons director of rugby Alex Codling said: "I thought Northampton kicked really well in the second half, turned us round, but ultimately its's small margins - we've come out on the wrong side, we dust ourselves down and we go again next week.

"For their points (in the first half) they didn't have to do a huge amount and we had to work unbelievably hard for ours, but that's rugby.

"At times, we didn't kick as well as we should have done and in conditions like this that's paramount. But again, massive credit to the players.

"The spirit was huge again, as it was last week. We missed a kick last week - a tough one - and again today. That's no disrespect to the kickers - it's tough - but that's the margins at the moment, just one or two points."

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