Exeter Chiefs 15 Northampton Saints 18: match report There was a rueful tone to the post-match presentations with veteran players being saluted by the crowd and doing a baleful lap of honour. The season is not yet run but the portents are not promising. It was good for Exeter to acknowledge their supporters for it's been an invigorating ride this season. Yet what was more revealing was that they looked shattered by the loss, as well they should. Exeter are not content with a first ever placing in next season's Heineken Cup, not prepared to take the patronising pats on the back that they've done well for a little "un. They'll be the stronger for this reverse for they'll appreciate how fine the point of difference is. "When you're within touching distance it's disappointing to come up short," said Exeter director of rugby, Rob Baxter. We're thrilled to be playing in these sort of games but frustrated to let things slip. All you can do is to fight and fight to get into these situations. If we're in this scenario again, we'll be better. Baxter was honest enough to admit that it's unlikely that Northampton will make a mess of it now. Of course, you'd be a fool to rule out anything with Exeter who have made a mockery of the notion that a club can only deliver in the Premiership if they have a raft of marquee names. The Chiefs have shown that well-judged recruitment, shrewd coaching and a willingness to fight for each other can still work wonders. Those virtues ought to have held true here. This was only Exeter's second league defeat in 2012 and you could see why they have risen through the ranks with such conviction. In a bristling first-half, they played at a rattle, moving the ball with pace and cleverness in difficult, blustery conditions. They scored an early try through their tricky Argentine wing, Gonzalo Comacho, and created several other openings. It looked as if they would have things settled by the break. There was an authority and energy to their play that ought to have seen them two or three tries to the good by the interval. But they fluffed those openings. They didn't manage the situation well, were either too rushed and frantic, or took the wrong option. There was a vital tap tackle at one point on Chiefs" influential fly-half, Ignacio Mieres, by Saints centre, George Pisi, saving an almost certain try. At another juncture a wonderfully acrobatic aerial knock down by Tom Johnson saw the ball ricochet out to an unmarked Chiefs player on the wing. He had a clear run to the line. Unfortunately that man was tighthead prop, Hoani Tui. That clear run to the line didn't remain so for long. Just before half-time after another surging Exeter attack prop Ben Moon was held up over the try-line. On such margins. It was all the encouragement that Northampton needed. They had weathered a pretty fearful battering in the first-half yet went down the tunnel only seven points adrift. Within ninety seconds that deficit had been reduced to two, Chris Ashton doing what predatory wings are supposed to do, and which he hasn't been doing until lately, finish off a sharp Northampton attack to touchdown in the corner. Midway through the half Stephen Myler knocked over a penalty to push his side in front. Bright, sharp, self-assured Exeter had disappeared. They looked edgy and vulnerable, particularly at scrum and lineout. The Chiefs made poor decisions. Northampton, more street-wise as the game wore on, didn't need any second bidding. They won two heels against the head in the later stages. From the second of them, they pounced, no.8, Roger Wilson steaming forward and finding Paul Diggin on his outside. The wing made no mistake with his run-in. Saints were relieved to have shaken off the torpor that saw them succumb to rivals, Leicester, at home last week. They have been bedevilled by injury and suspension but are all too aware that a club of their stature ought to be in the end-of-season mix. "It's good that it's now in our hands," said director of rugby, Jim Mallinder. It would have been massively disappointing if we hadn't managed to pull it round. Mallinder hopes to have lock, Courtney Lawes, available before the end of the season but revealed that Wood's bothersome foot problems have not cleared up. Fittingly, Richard Baxter scored with the last play in his 350th league appearance for the club. We haven't seen the last of Exeter in these type of games. They'll be back.