Saracens boss Brendan Venter saluted his team's "courage and determination" after they reeled off a seventh successive Guinness Premiership victory.

The unbeaten leaders' run of seven successive wins represents the best Premiership start to a season by any club since Newcastle claimed 12 on the bounce in 1997.

But Saracens came desperately close to losing their 100% record, hanging on for a 12-11 verdict against struggling Bath at the Recreation Ground.

Venter's men looked to be in the driving seat at half-time, leading 12-3 through tries by flanker Andy Saull and wing Noah Cato.

But Bath, without a home victory in any competition since April last season, dug deep to guarantee a nerve-shredding climax when skipper Michael Claassens touched down three minutes from time.

Saracens, though, despite having substitute prop Rhys Gill sin-binned just before a nine-minute spell of injury time began, left the West Country with another four points.

Venter said: "That game could have gone either way, but whatever the result, it wouldn't have changed how courageous our approach was.

"Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong in the second half, but the guys kept going. It was courage and determination - they fought it out."

Venter took issue with referee Chris White's decision to yellow-card Gill, who was cautioned for appearing to knock the ball out of Claassens' hands having not retreated 10 metres.

Venter added: "It was not a sin bin at all. They milked it, and you can lose a Premiership game like that.

"I spoke to Rhys afterwards, and he said he didn't touch the Bath player."

Saracens claimed only their second victory on Bath soil since 2001, and they now go in to a short break for Anglo-Welsh competition guaranteed to remain in top spot.

Venter though, knows the Premiership season still has more than two-thirds of its duration to run, and he said: "The moment you look ahead, you cannot see the stumbling blocks and you fall flat on your face."

Bath, in contrast, have just one victory from nine games in all competitions this term, although it was a vast improvement on the shambolic home defeat against Newcastle seven days ago.

Bath head coach Steve Meehan said: "A couple of missed tackles lost it for us.

"But it was very pleasing to get an effort like that. We worked really hard, and while we are disappointed with the result, we are a lot happier with the effort and attitude.

"We are disappointed with where we are in the table, but we came across a team undefeated in the Premiership today, and that game could have gone either way.

"The talent is there, and if we can repeat that effort on a weekly basis, then it will turn into wins."