Vesty believes Saints can bounce back against Sale

The black, green and gold go into the game on the back of two successive Gallagher Premiership defeats.

They were edged out late on by Bath in their most recent Gardens match-up, and they followed that up with a disappointing 37-19 defeat to Harlequins last Sunday.

Saints had huge chances in both games to secure victory but fluffed their lines when it mattered most.

However, attack coach Vesty is remaining upbeat.

“We need to play well, and play well for 80 minutes," Vesty said.

"At the moment we’re playing well for periods of time and those periods are too short at the moment to win games.

“We need to turn that around.

"If we put in the performance against Sale that I know we can, then I have no doubts we’ll win the game."

On last weekend's loss, which came despite Quins being reduced to 13 men during the second half, Vesty said: “We’re in a position where we are not scoring when we should, but we are creating.

“It’s a much better place to be, when you’re creating opportunities and finding ways of not scoring them - which it feels like we’re doing at the moment - than actually struggling to create.

“It will come, 100 per cent it will come.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t good enough in that period (against 13 players), full stop. We created opportunities that we didn’t put away and that hurts you in the end.

"It’s a tough competition and you have to take your chances.

"When they were down to 13, we went away from what we are good at.

“In rugby you have to go forward. We played too laterally and passed too early, rather than making the ball go forward.

"We needed to force them to make tackles in the middle and suddenly you’ve got space on the edges.

“We passed the ball to space too early and allowed them to drift off. When they’re lacking numbers that’s exactly what they want you to do.

“So, we lost a bit of composure. The guys knew what we wanted to achieve and just didn’t execute that, and that’s the really frustrating thing.

“We know how we want to play in that situation, and it doesn’t look like that. Everyone in the dressing room is disappointed because that’s another one that got away.”

One shining light last Sunday was Fraser Dingwall, with the centre racking up a hat-trick of try assists.

Dingwall made 69 metres and three clean breaks from his 12 carries during the contest, beating five defenders and completing an offload along the way.

And Vesty said: “I thought Dingers was excellent.

“He runs those short balls so well and makes yards on those inside lines.

“He plays the game going forward; we talk a lot about north-south, and he plays that game really well.

"We’re chuffed for him.”