MATCH SUMMARY Bath 9 (6) Pens: Barkley 3 Northampton 17 (9) Try: Mallon Pens: Reihana 4

The Irish centre seized upon a misplaced pass by home kicker Chris Malone to sprint 75 metres to the line.

That compounded a disappointing day for Malone, who was also guilty of missing some important place kicks.

Carlos Spencer made light of wet conditions to orchestrate the Saints with incisive passes and clever kicks.

But there was little action to admire on both sides for the first 20 minutes and Ollie Barkley and Bruce Reihana swapped penalties to leave Northampton 9-6 ahead on the half hour.

Northampton's display was marred by infringements but they had kicked their way into a narrow lead before Mallon made the game safe.

Northampton coach Budge Pountney paid tribute to his players' resolve after their win.

"The most important thing was the attitude we had in the game," he said.

"We turned around a defeat at Leicester last week with a relatively new team and that's good. They found the passion that we've always had at Northampton.

"These boys have worked hard to find what they are about. But Bath stayed in the hunt because of our discipline so we've got bits to sort out."

Bath head coach John Connolly was in an understandably subdued mood after the home defeat.

"In games like that with so much rain you tend to lose games not win them. The balance swings to the side in defence," he said.

"The try came from a move which is a bit tough to attempt in those conditions, we didn't execute it well.

"We lost our first two games last year and finished fourth - it's best not to look at the bottom of the table."

Bath: Perry; Finau, Higgins, Barkley, Welsh; Malone, Wood; Barnes, Mears, Bell; Borthwick (capt), Grewcock; Beattie, Scaysbrook, Feaunati.
Replacements: Dunne for Malone (74), Stevens for Barnes (60), Delve for Fea'unati (70).
Not Used: Dixon, Fidler, Walshe, Davis.

Northampton: Reihana (capt); Lamont, Clarke, Mallon, Cohen;Spencer, Robinson; Smith, Hartley, Sturgess; Lord, Browne; Soden, Fox, Browne.
Replacements: Howard for Robinson (80), Thompson for Hartley (40), Budgen for Sturgess (65), Lewitt for D. Browne (60).
Not Used: Rae, Davies, Rudd.

Att: 10,060

Referee: D Rose (RFU).