Esher 10 Northampton 41

Mike Schmid admitted he was proud of his Esher players after they gave mighty Saints a scare at sold-out Pillar Data Arena.

The Surrey side stunned the runaway National One leaders by snatching a deserved lead with a converted Don Barrell try inside two minutes.

And the East Midlands giants feared their 21-match unbeaten run was in danger as they trailed 10-5 at half-time with Esher threatening the shock of the season.

With 35 minutes left, Esher were dreaming of Mission Impossible before Northampton's superior speed and power told.

Wing sensation Chris Ashton's second try five minutes after the break took his season's tally to 31 and broke Northampton's resistance, if not their spirit.

Director of rugby Schmid said: "I was immensely proud of the players and very pleased with the energy and commitment they showed in the first half. We deserved to be ahead.

"But them we allowed Northampton to play their power game in the second half and we came off the boil.

"We made a few mistakes and fully-professional sides like Northampton are going to punish you. But we battled hard and it was a great day for the club."

Saints chief Jim Mallinder admitted: "I think Esher competed well and gave us a really good game.

"I knew they'd come out firing and they maintained that throughout the first half.

"But you'd hope that the fact that we are a fully professional side who train every day would tell, and in the end it did."

Barrell lit the fuse to a memorable day in front of 2,500 fans by bursting over with just over a minute on the clock following good work by Charlie Amesbury.

Dave Hewitt converted but missed a straightforward penalty after quarter of an hour.

Saints blew two golden try-scoring chances when Paul Diggin was held up and then Mark Easter wasted a two-man overlap.

But Saints eventually got on the scoreboard when, following a lineout, Stephen Myler's cut-out pass released Ashton and the former Wigan rugby league star went over.

Esher continued to take the game to Saints and when the visitors conceded a further 10 yards for backchat to the referee, Hewitt slotted the simple penalty.

Saints should have been down to 14 men just before half-time when Ashton illegally tackled Amesbury in mid-air but the referee amazing awarded just a penalty.

Ashton, selected for the England Saxons squad last month, took advantage of his escape to show his enormous potential with a brilliant run just after the break.

And the right-wing was on hand to touch down following a neat kick through from former All Black Bruce Reihana. Myler converted and added a penalty to make it 15-10 to the visitors.

Saints stepped up a gear against an Esher side starting to show signs of vulnerability with some poor first-up tackling.

Darren Fox took advantage of poor defence to score Northampton's third try after 56 minutes and Diggin punished another Esher mistake to wrap up the bonus point three minutes later.

Esher wasted two excellent chances as twice Gary Johnson ignored Amesbury out wide when a simple pass could have released the Harlequins speedster.

Northampton's strength in depth was illustrated as another former All Black Mark Robinson arrived as a replacement and the scrum-half denied Amesbury a second Esher try.

Esher made a raft of substitutions in an effort to stem the tide but it was Saints who finished powerfully with further tries from Myler and Reihana.

A 22nd straight victory sent them soaring 14 points clear at the top while Esher slipped to 11th place and face a huge test at Exeter this weekend in the EDF National Trophy quarter-finals.