Northampton banished their European blues to go top – for 24 hours at least – and guaranteed themselves a Premiership play-off spot. But only just.

With Bath – on Tuesday – Saracens and London Irish still to play, the venue for that semi-final is still in doubt, but no other side makes home advantage pay like the Saints. Having won 12 at Franklin's Gardens since February 2009, they came back from a sticky first half to score two tries in four minutes. First Dylan Hartley got on the end of a move created by Stephen Myler and Chris Ashton before the England wing took a scoring pass from Lee Dickson to score his own second.

Those blows did not kill Gloucester off – the lock Dave Attwood spun over for the visitor's second try 12 minutes later – but were just what Jim Mallinder's men needed to settle them for a final league push after last week's Heineken Cup loss. Then they came a poor second to the European veterans, Munster, and here they took some time laying down any superiority. Only when Bruce Reihana gifted Ashton his hat-trick, 50 seconds from time, did the game look safe.

After sharing a couple of penalties, they would have gone behind but for a bit of front-row hot-headedness when Nick Wood chose to run a very kickable penalty. The prop got about six paces, Gloucester were turned over, went 60 metres backwards from the clearing kick and then promptly lost the line-out to Courtney Lawes.

As so often happens at Northampton, it was Ashton who reaped the benefit, zipping in under the posts. James Simpson-Daniel, watched by the man who has chosen to ignore his talents, came close to returning the compliment immediately, but with Martin Johnson in the stands the 10‑cap wonder made sure he was in the England manager's mind with the best move of the half.

The first dart took the 27-year‑old Gloucester wing through heavy midfield traffic towards the posts. The second was a 60-metre diagonal sprint to the right corner where Charlie Sharples had the simple task of accepting the lay-off.

Myler pushed the half-time lead out to six points with his third penalty, but with Simpson-Daniel prompting, Sharples deserved better when he was denied by James Downey palming the ball dead, only to be missed by both referee and touch judge. It was typical of Gloucester's day.

NORTHAMPTON Foden; Ashton, Clarke, Downey, Reihana; Myler (Geraghty, 62), Dickson; Tonga'uiha, Hartley (capt), Murray (Mujati, 62), Lobbe (Easter, 63), Kruger, Lawes, Dowson, Wilson

Tries Ashton 3, Hartley Cons Myler 3 Pens Myler 3, Geraghty

GLOUCESTER Burns (Morgan, 45); Sharples, May (Voyce, 57), Tindall (capt), Simpson-Daniel; Robinson, R Lawson; Wood (Dickinson, 47), Azam (S Lawson, h-t), Doran-Jones (Capdevielle, 63), Attwood, Brown, Strokosch, Boer (Buxton, 56), Eustace

Try Sharples Con Robinson Pens Robinson 3

Franklin's Gardens 13,460 Referee Andrew Small