ROB Baxter says his Exeter Chiefs side go into Sunday's clash at Bristol confident they can win promotion this season.

The Sandy Park head coach thinks such inner belief is crucial in tight matches.

And, as he is expecting a massive challenge against the early season leaders, Exeter's confidence will be tested this weekend.

Bristol were relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season and, like the Chiefs, have won all four matches so far this campaign.

Baxter said: "In any league season belief is a massive thing and if you 100 per cent genuinely believe you can win a league is gives you an edge in a tough game.

"At the moment I think we've got that, we believe we can be in the shake-up and if we can stay injury free and stay focused the play-offs will be a nice challenge for us.

"Traditionally the team that comes down doesn't get beaten very often so if we beat Bristol a month into the season it would be great, not only for us but for the Championship as well.

"It's going to be a big challenge, Bristol aren't going to let us go up there and walk all over them."

Baxter is one of the few people left at the Chiefs who were involved in the last competitive meeting between Exeter and Bristol, a 68-15 win for Bristol in March 2005.

However, keen to divert attention away from that horror show, Baxter prefers to mention the 15-6 defeat of Bristol in pre-season last year.

"I think the game against Bristol that is fresh in everybody's mind is when we beat them in pre-season last year," said Baxter.

"If any game holds any bearing then it's probably that one rather than the one from 2005."

Baxter added: "I think Bristol find themselves in a similar position to us, they probably think they're not playing their best rugby at the moment, they know the time to be on fire is the end of the season, but they're winning games.

"They're probably happy where they stand, as we are, but this is probably the first game when a team can really lay down a marker. We're both unbeaten, it's a local derby and whatever anybody says about the make-up of the season, this is a big game.

"We've ticked along nicely and fulfilled all our goals as far as we could but a game that requires a big performance is just what the guys need."

Baxter said that Samoan international Chad Slade had been able to train as normal despite the tsunami that has hit his homeland. The 27-year-old was yesterday named in Exeter's 24-man squad for Sunday's match.

"Early in the morning when we saw the news I went and had a chat with Chad and asked him if he'd been able to get any news from Samoa," said Baxter.

"He'd already spoken to everybody back there, they'd assured him they were all okay but he was going to talk to them later on as well. As far as Chad is concerned everything's okay and he's trained as normal."

Exeter Chiefs (from): Murphy, Tui, Sturgess, Alcott, Clark, Nelson, Tomes, Hanks, Hayes, Baxter, Slade, Johnson, Scaysbrook, Thomas, Stuart-Smith, Bolt, Steenson, Gray, Foster, Cornwell, McKenzie, Dollman, Jess, Lewis