'I was worried I was going to mess it up' - Coles reflects on his try at Red Bulls

Coles capped a man-of-the-match performance with a superb score, picking up a tidy inside pass from Fin Smith and sprinting for the line.

It was an incredible show of athleticism after a tough 80 minutes in the pack for the England forward.

And when asked about his try, Coles said: "The space opened up quite nicely. I was screaming at Fin to give it on the inside and luckily he heard me.

"I actually didn't really know what to do when I broke the line - I was worried I was going to mess it up.

"But it was nice at that time to get it because it's a bit of a margin at the end and it made it a bit safer going into the last few minutes."

Saints had to work their socks off for the win at Kingston Park, especially as they had to play 30 of the 80 minutes with 14 men due to a yellow card and 20-minute red card for South African lock JJ van der Mescht.

"They (Newcastle) made it really hard work for us," Coles said. "It's never an easy game actually. We looked back at our last few results here and they've always been tight, coming down to the last play normally.

"Especially after the result they had last weekend (a 57-5 defeat at Sale Sharks), we knew they'd fight back, and they produced a really good reaction, making it hard for us all over the pitch.

"The support here was amazing for them - it was a sell-out and that made it a bit of an atmosphere, and they fed off that.

"We just stuck in it and stuck in it, and in the end we managed to get ourselves a bit of a margin, which meant we didn't have the last play to try to win it at the end.

"The whole game was really nip and tuck, and it was only at the end we managed to get two scores ahead.

"Credit to us that we stuck in it, credit to them that it was such a tight game, but we keep finding way to win games and it's something, especially away, we haven't always done.

"We're happy to be two from two away from home in the PREM."

Despite taking 18 points from a possible 20 so far in this season's Gallagher PREM, Coles knows there is much more to come from his side.

"We're going to be hard on those things we can get better at," he said.

"In the past few games, we've had really good starts and then not clicked, but I think at lot of that is just time.

"Both our half-backs (Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith) have only just come back from the Lions so that's going to take some time to gel again.

"We've had people coming back from different places at different times, but the positive thing for us is that we're getting results and then it's a much easier place to review that performance on the back of a win rather than a loss."

Newcastle certainly used the fuel given to them by a sell-out crowd to add to the fire at Kingston Park on Friday night.

And Coles said: "Just speaking to some of the fans after the game, you get a sense there's a buzz around the place.

"I've got some family friends who said they don't normally come to games but they're looking at coming over the next few years and it's really exciting that this great club is getting a bit more support, a bit more backing.

"You can see it with some of the signings they've brought in this year - the Argentinian nine (Simón Benítez Cruz) is a real handful, (Amanaki) Mafi, their eight, was really good today, and with some more recruitment next year, they're going to become a real force.

"It's just good for the league."

Saints' focus now switches to the home PREM clash with Saracens next Friday night.

And Coles is happy his side can go into that game on the back of another bonus-point win.

"It's a much better place to look at stuff and get better," he said.

"I think we will just keep getting better and better.

"We're really happy with the results.

"Performance wise, there's bits we need to look at, and the coaches are really good at staying level-headed regardless of results so we'll be looking at things objectively.

"We've got a really tough test coming up with Sarries at home because they're also looking really good.

"We're looking forward to that game, back at home, another Friday night game, and we love playing at the Gardens.

"We've had some real mega games against Sarries at home so we're looking forward to it."