Brendan Venter hailed Exeter's first away victory in Aviva Premiership Rugby as a triumph for the underdog and a great example of what can be achieved with collective will.
The Saracens rugby director said after his high-flying team had been beaten 23-9: "From my point of view it's amazing what you can achieve with a collective will. They came here with a team of unknowns, got stuck into us and deserved to win."
Venter continued: "When you analyse the game we have created an unbelievable number of chances and had a few little things gone right I think we would have gone on to win. Their defence was excellent but the bottom line is they played as a team and today we played as individuals. Yet when I watch the video I think I'll find we were not as bad as I thought.
"Of course I'm disappointed but what do I do - kick a chair, shout, or throw water? No, you have to give credit where it is due."
To add to Saracens' woes they lost England squad member, centre Brad Barritt, who suffered a compound fracture of a finger and will be out for up to six weeks.
It was a great day for Exeter and their followers and for 24-year-old fly-half Ryan Davis who celebrated his first Aviva Premiership Rugby start for the Chiefs with 18 points from a try, two conversions and three penalties.
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter said: "We felt we needed to make a breakthrough versus a major team. We'd done well away from home but repeatedly come up short, so to see the job through is special.
"We're a confident bunch with self-belief. But you also have to work for what you achieve at this level and we had three separate periods when we had to defend for our lives. I was proud of the way the lads retained their focus.
"We have showed that when you want something badly enough and are prepared to work for it you can succeed. I've been asked on radio if I would have settled for a losing bonus point before kick-off. Hand on heart the answer is 'no'.
"You can't go out looking for losing bonus points before the kick-off because then you start playing like that and you never progress.
"Ryan joined us from Bath and while Gareth Steenson was first choice fly-half he worked hard and waited patiently. He's a sparkly individual and a fine goalkicker and I think he did a tremendous job against very fine opposition."
Goode kicked three penalties out of four attempts for Saracens, who never managed to get their noses in front.
Davis dummied the defence before scoring the game's first try on the stroke of half-time and although Saracens created chances that they failed to take the visitors clinched a deserved win seven minutes from time when loosehead prop Brett Sturgess pounced on a mistake and galloped up the left, just managing to crash over the line despite the attention of two tacklers.
http://www.premiershiprugby.com/premiership/news/24638.php