Leicester Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill insists the club are in a "good place" despite having just the Guinness Premiership crown left to fight for.

Tigers' 23-11 defeat by Northampton at Franklin's Gardens, coupled with Saracens' bonus point in their defeat againt Newport ended the club's LV= Cup participation this season.

Although admitting his disappointment at being out of Europe and the Anglo-Welsh Cup by the start of February, Cockerill believes his charges are well placed to challenge for a repeat of last season's league crown.

"We didn't qualify in Europe from an exceptionally tough pool and we have been missing players throughout this (LV= Cup) tournament," he said.

"But we are playing some good stuff. We are scoring more tries than most and are conceding less than most, so we are in a good place.

"We are positive and we must turn our attention to the Guinness Premiership and try to defend our crown.

"We have a few guys missing for the next few weeks because of the internationals but we are in good fettle and are having a good season.

"Only Anthony Allen and Richard Blaze are on the long-term injury list and Anthony will be fit next weekend."

Cockerill watched his side dominate a strong Saints outfit for large parts of the game on Saturday with centre Billy Twelvetrees scoring their only try. But their failure to make the most of their possession, coupled with conceding two poor scores in the first half, led to their downfall.

"We were disappointed with the soft tries because I thought we played some good stuff and it was an excellent try by Billy," he said.

"Some daft errors in defence cost us and that is not like us.

"The game was relatively close and, if we had made more of those chances in the second half, maybe it would have been a grandstand finish.

"We had 19 blokes out either unavailable or being rested and I thought those who played acquitted themselves fairly well.

"In the first half we controlled the majority of the ball but they scored two tries with two attacks and that killed us.

"But there were lots of positives. Dan Hemingway did well in the second row and Tom Youngs played well on his debut for us at hooker.

"Harry Ellis is getting back to fitness and it was good to have Geordan Murphy back out on the field after a long lay-off.

"I also thought Lucas Amorosino was outstanding for us. Some of the stuff he did was world-class and we are a bit disappointed that he got a knock (on his knee) at the end. He has ice on that and we will see how it is. We go to Leeds in the league next week and that is going to be a huge game for us."