ROB Baxter hopes his Exeter Chiefs players call upon the spirit of their win against Perpignan last month when they face Leicester this weekend.

The Tigers head to Sandy Park on Saturday evening for the first of four successive Aviva Premiership matches.

Head coach Baxter knows that run of games could make the Chiefs' season, with just five more league games to go after they complete the next block.

Exeter head into this weekend's round of fixtures sixth in the table, just one win below Leicester in fourth place.

If Baxter's men have any aspirations of forcing themselves into the top four and a play-off place and guaranteed Heineken Cup spot for next term, they have to take advantage.

The Sandy Park chief wants to see a similar performance to the one that saw them beat Perpignan to book their place in the last eight of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Baxter said: "I think with the way we are feeling as a team we have got to talk about ambition. What we want to achieve this season should be the biggest motivating factor.

"We can look at what this game could do for us in the table and how far it could move us up and we can look at this batch of four games and what they could do for us.

"We have to be ambitious about what we want to achieve and how we want to move forward rather than worry about what might happen at the bottom of the table.

"We want to perform how we did in the Perpignan game. That match didn't decide the success of our season but we were desperate to perform and desperate to win."

Following Saturday's game, Exeter face Wasps, Bath and Sale – currently 11th, 10th and seventh in the table – so have the chance to string some results together.

Before Baxter can think about those matches, however, he must decide which players to select for the Leicester game.

He should revert almost en bloc to the side that beat Perpignan but a few players are in contention to return.

Locks James Hanks and Peter Short started both of the recent LV= Cup ties but Hanks hobbled off during the 31-3 defeat against Bath with an ankle injury.

The club's medical staff hope he has aggravated an old injury, which could shorten his recovery time. However, Baxter will be waiting on the results of a scan to see if Hanks will be fit.

Prop Ben Moon will also be in the frame after coming through 69 minutes against Bath.

And Baxter has warned Leicester that his side will be throwing everything at their visitors in a bid to follow-up their 30-28 win at Welford Road in September.

"We respect Leicester but we show that respect by giving our all against them and trying to play as well as we can," he said. "They have always been good games and always entertaining and I think it will be like that again."