Saints scrum a pivotal platform
Saints had gone into the fixture having lost three of their first four Premiership games, but wins over Scarlets and Glasgow Warriors in Europe were considerable feathers in their caps.
And on a night wracked by wind and rain, a fine scrum – spearheaded by England tighthead Kieran Brookes – helped Stephen Myler notch five penalties from the tee.
"Some of the games we looked at with Gloucester they've gone pretty well in the scrum so we knew it was going to be a tough contest," said West.
"With the techniques we've talked about during the week though, we thought we'd have a good chance – and it worked out that way.
"Last week away from home (against Glasgow Warriors) you need a good set-piece to win games at quality sides, and it proved like that. Conditions were shocking tonight so you're not going to play any rugby.
"We've got lads in the team who want to play rugby, we're pretty positive without our outlook in the game, but sometimes you've got to bite the bullet when it's not the right conditions.
"I thought we tried a little bit too hard on occasions and we could have perhaps put them under a bit more pressure."
Billy Twelvetrees collected Gloucester's only points of the night with a first-half penalty but the Cherry and Whites skipper, as well as Jonny May, came close to breaking Saints' resistance.
The defeat sees Gloucester pick up their third Premiership loss in five, and director of rugby David Humphreys chalked it up to an off night for his pack.
"The wet conditions made the set-piece even more important," said Humphreys. "Paddy (McAllister) has come in this year and our scrum has been very good all season until now.
"You have to give Northampton a lot of credit, they have a quality pack. They put us under pressure throughout the game with a lot of scrums and it didn't allow us to get any momentum.
"We are not making excuses, it wasn't good enough. They have built a lot of their success around their scrum over the last few years.
"Both teams were making a lot of unforced errors, on a night like that it was always going to be the case. What you want is to make less errors than the opposition, but that wasn't the case."
