Northampton Saints head coach Sam Vesty says the team are "not purring yet" despite being third in the Premiership.

The backroom changes at Franklin's Gardens also saw forward coach Phil Dowson promoted to director of rugby.

"Dows' role has changed in quite a dramatic way and mine is quite subtle," Vesty told BBC Radio Northampton.

Saints have won three and lost three of their opening six league games - but their bonus points tally of six is the joint highest in the league.

They led Newcastle 32-14 in their last Premiership fixture, but only scraped home by a single point as the Falcons hit back with three tries.

"It did feel a little bit sour because we know there's lots more to come," said Vesty.

"We're not purring yet - we're finding some great patches of rugby where we're fantastic in attack and set-piece but there are too many times when we're just letting the pressure off and that's not allowing us to put 80-minute performances together.

"Fundamentally, we did some very good things [against Newcastle] but our execution was poor for a real chunk of time and our mistakes were pretty catastrophic in that game."

The 40-year-old is encouraging the Saints players to get their heads up and look for holes in the opposition defensive lines, rather than spinning it out wide at every opportunity.

He added: "What I'm trying to help these guys to be better at is looking for space and then [it is about] how we attack that space.

"I'm quite pragmatic about it. It really irks me when people talk about us being an expansive team. I don't think we are an expansive team, I think we play space really well - and that might be space right next to the ruck, or it might be the space one out from the fly-half.

"The way we play, I think, gives us the best chance of winning. I think it's great to watch, great to play, gets the best out of people and entertains, which rugby has to do."