After two weeks on the road the Saints return home on Friday night to face Castres in a match vital for both team's Heineken Cup ambitions.
Saints go into the clash fresh from inflicting Exeter's first Sandy Park reverse in this Aviva Premiership Rugby season, and Mallinder says that the visitors' league points were well earned.
"We deserved to win today," he told Sky Sports after the game. "Exeter are a very good side with a good record at Sandy Park and I thought we played well.
"The performance was similar to our season in general. We've not been playing that badly and I don't think that we've been justifying the criticism that we've had recently. We work hard to achieve our goals and will continue to do that in the future.
"To win here is big, and we're pleased to have done so, but we need to keep winning. We're happy to have gone back into the top four overnight, but we're not going to be over the top just because we're there, in the same way as we didn't get too down after a couple of losses.
"Today's game was good preparation for the Heineken Cup, but what we need to do now is focus on our home form. We've had some cracking wins away at Bath, Gloucester, Ulster and now Exeter, but we need to build on our home form, starting next Friday against Castres."
The Saints have had great backing from the travelling black, green and gold army in Milton Keynes and Exeter over the past fortnight, and your support can help make the difference against Castres at Franklin's Gardens on Friday.
Tickets are available NOW and throughout the weekend - to order online just CLICK HERE and follow the straightforward instructions!
