Phil Dowson: Northampton Saints have enough quality in squad

Northampton Saints forward Phil Dowson has insisted that the squad have confidence and can recover from losing their last four Premiership matches.

Saints have slipped to sixth in the table and five points off the top four.

Dowson told BBC Look East: "There's lots of speculation about where we are as a squad.

"Lots of people make comments about the state of the squad who don't speak to the players and who don't know the coaches. It sometimes seems baffling."

He added: "It bears little relevance to what's happening and bears little resemblance to what I've seen."

Saints lost six consecutive Premiership games in 2010/11 and still qualified for the play-off semi-finals that season.

"Those guys will have built on that experience of a couple of years ago," said Dowson.

"At the start of the season, we were playing really well. You can't worry about it too much. I've no qualms with the commitment, effort and enthusiasm from the lads.

"The depth is there, the quality of player is there and it's just getting that balance right when we're bringing new guys into the team.

"We're playing against good sides and sometimes people expect us to win at home every single week - it's tough. We got it wrong last week [against Gloucester] but we're going to have to learn from it.

"We're not in the position in the league we want to be."