Northampton's director of rugby Jim Mallinder was relieved to secure victory at Montpellier on Thursday as the Saints moved to within one point of a guaranteed home European Challenge Cup quarter-final.

Northampton were forced to come from behind in France before winning 28-24 thanks to tries by Chris Mayor, Stephen Myler and Sean Lamont.

Ben Foden was the start of the show, but Mallinder thought there was still room for improvement in his side.

He said: "It was a difficult place to come and play, and we're delighted to get the win, but we're a bit disappointed with our performance.

"We forced a bit too much ball and didn't control the ball as well as we'd have liked.

"But we've got a young team here that are growing together and it's fantastic for them to come to places like this.

"We're top of the group, we have a home game against Toulon to come and this puts us in a good position."