Fly-half Shane Drahm was the hero as Northampton Saints secured a crucial Zurich Premiership win over Gloucester at Kingsholm to ease their relegation worries.

Saints, starting the match 11th in the league and just one point above basement side Leeds, and Drahm was the architect of their timely victory.

It was former Rotherham centre Neil Starling who struck the first blow for Saints.

Gloucester had only themselves to blame though with Henry Paul and Terry Fanolua allowing Starling to step inside them and score after a clever Drahm pass.

Drahm added the conversion before, just minutes later, Marc Stcherbina also charged over the try line for another soft score. A Johnny Howard pick-up from the back of a ruck set up the try as Drahm fed the ball to the centre who fought off Paul, James Simpson-Daniel and Nick Wood to claim the try with Drahm adding the conversion.

Gloucester clawed their way back into contention in the second quarter thanks to two penalties from Paul but it was not until the second half that the home side met Northampton's challenge.

Luck however was not on their side as Saints threw everything they had at their rivals to stop them from scoring and it worked.

Instead Drahm carved out a 17-point lead with three second half penalties and when Olivier Azam joined Northampton's Andrew Blowers in the sin bin, any advantage Gloucester had was wiped out completely.

Marcel Garvey and Nathan Mauger provided some cheer for the Cherry and Whites with two late tries but Northampton's lead was never really challenged with Drahm adding a final penalty.