Dowson had full faith Saints would finish the job at Kingston Park
Phil Dowson insists he would have backed Saints to finish the job at Newcastle Red Bulls even if the home side had levelled at 26-26 during the second half.
Red Bulls had a try ruled out with 18 minutes to go as George McGuigan was penalised for a tip tackle on Ed Prowse.
Brett Connon had already added the conversion to level the scores by the time Boeta Chamberlain's effort was brought back.
It meant Saints stayed 26-19 up and they made the most of that reprieve as they pushed on thanks to a Fin Smith penalty and Alex Coles' try.
The black, green and gold really had to battle for their bonus-point 36-19 win, particularly as JJ van der Mescht was off the field for a total of 30 minutes due to a yellow card and a 20-minute red card.
But boss Dowson was always confident his team would get over the line against a fired-up home side in front of a sell-out crowd at Kingston Park.
"If they'd got to 26-26 it would have been tight, but I'd still back our group to manage the game with international half-backs and the quality we had on the field," Dowson said.
"We were back to 15 at that point and even at 26-26, I was still feeling relatively positive.
"There's clearly issues around discipline and it's hard when you're playing with 14.
"Particularly with the investment of Red Bull at Newcastle now, it's always tough.
"It was tough last season up here and there won't be many easy games."
Saints are top of the table ahead of the rest of the weekend's action as they have now accrued 18 points from a possible 20 at the start of the new Gallagher PREM season.
But Dowson said: "We don't look at 18 points out of 20, we look at being 30 points up against Exeter (in the 33-33 opening-day draw) and dropping those two points so it could easily have been 20 points from 20.
"We're aware it's all good and it's in the bank but we need to make sure we prepare, with the disruption from England camps and such, for the game against Saracens (at home next Friday).
"It will be a disrupted week, Monday and Tuesday, and obviously Saracens will be in the same boat so we'll all be scratching our heads how to manage the England players being in camp (for the early part of the week).
"Saracens are obviously a class outfit with a lot of very, very good players, and they will want to make up for a disappointing season last year, like we do."