EXETER Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is looking to secure a top-eight place as soon as possible to start planning for the promotion play-offs.

The Sandy Park outfit lead the way in the Championship with 12 wins from as many games.

But this season promotion will be decided by a play-off between the top eight sides in the division.

After Saturday's 14-9 win at Doncaster, Exeter need another 16 points to guarantee their place in that end-of-season contest.

The bottom of the section is very tight at the moment, with only eight points separating 11th-placed Doncaster and sixth-placed London Welsh.

Baxter thinks that will lead to a battle until the last game of the regular season to sort out the top eight clubs.

"We've talked all season about earning a top-eight place," said Baxter. "We'll keep focusing on earning that top-eight place.

"Once we've earned that top-eight place we'll start focusing on hitting the final third of the season with real quality.

"What slightly changes now and what people weren't prepared for is that the top eight is not clear-cut. Ten league games will go very quickly, I think there will be a few battle royals just to decide who's going to be in the top eight.

"It may well be that a lot of teams can't really plan on going into the final part of the season on top form, they're just going to be battling until the final whistle of the last game.

"That will benefit some teams because they'll go into the play-off games used to fighting for league points, for others it may mean they have emptied the tank a little bit too much.

"What you've got to make sure is that you're neither one, that you hit that final part of the season with enough game time to be on form but that you've got a bit more to give, you can put it into overdrive and off you go. That's where we intend to be."

The next challenge for the Chiefs is against crisis club Coventry at Sandy Park on Saturday.

The Midlanders went into administration on Friday after owner Andrew Green pulled the plug earlier in the week.

The club has debts of more than £500,000, most of that owed to the Inland Revenue.

However, their players have vowed to carry on and earned an impressive 15-15 draw with Bedford on Friday.

Baxter said Coventry's off-field problems wouldn't affect Exeter's training this week.

"We'll just prepare as we would do any other week," he said.

"Coventry's players have said they're going to carry on playing. They're playing for a lot of good reasons, they want to play for each other and they want to keep going.

"That makes them slightly awkward or dangerous, but it's the same group of players we've already beaten once this season.

"We've got to look at ourselves, look to improve and iron out a few of the wrinkles that were there on Saturday."