The Saints go into next Saturday's final pool match against Leicester at the top of Pool 4, a position whose foundations have been two away wins at the Liberty Stadium in November and at Edgeley Park in Round 3, the first time a Saints team has headed home with a 'W' next to their name.

"We've come away from home again and got a win, which is a big positive from last year," Dickens said. "Defence was critical tonight, especially when they started chasing the game.

"We let Charlie [Hodgson] sneak in at the corner and they put a lot of pressure on us in that particular passage of play. We were comfortable with 20 minutes to go but they nearly sneaked it at the end. All in all though the defence was outstanding today and we can look to Leicester next week.

"The team and the squad are about playing in big games. Our aim is to get out of the group. We had a taste of it last year at the Ricoh and hopefully we can get to the semi-finals again this year."

Dickens also had a chance to put his Academy manager's hat on to comment about the experience gained by Alex Waller and Owen Giles, both of whom saw action in the final quarter.

"It gives the future Academy players something to look and aim at," he added. "A lot of the guys who we coach on a Tuesday night at Moulton College come and watch games and read the papers, and if they're seeing Academy players getting a chance it's a carrot for them. That's what we want, Northampton players coming through and playing for the first team."

Director of rugby Jim Mallinder meanwhile told BBC Radio Northampton that his team stepped up excellently against a full strength Sharks outfit.

"It's a difficult place to play and Sale picked their strongest side," he told BBC Radio Northampton. "Fair play to them for coming back but we held out and got the win, which is all that matters. We swapped the centres and the back row and they all did well and stepped up tonight. It was good to score the tries and Stephen getting the kicks gave us the breathing space we needed.

"We were disappointed to give Sale an exciting finish but overall I was very pleased with our defence. You've got to keep your discipline and generally I thought that was good.

"We knew it would be tough up here, it's a hard place to come and play rugby. We knew we could do it, prepared well and we are going back a happy team.

"Next week we've got Leicester, and any game against them is huge."

Andy Long's first few minutes in a Saints shirt coincided with Sale's most consistent period of pressure. He nevertheless enjoyed his first team debut.

"It was a really competitive game and we did well to get out of it at the end," the hooker said. "They were really firing it at us. We had a number of experienced leaders out there and we kept our heads. We managed to hold on that scrum at the end and keep them out. Alex got some valuable game time, but Soane and Euan are fantastic scrummagers and we got the penalty we deserved.

"Sale are a very dangerous side, especially when they're chasing games. They fling the ball about, look for spaces and they have some really effective runners. We were disappointed we let them back in the game but we played some good rugby out there.

"We're happy to get the victory and I'm really pleased to have got my first game out of the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it."