It may be relatively early in the season, but depending on the final outcome of Sunday's game down at the Memorial Stadium against basement club Bristol we could find ourselves in two starkly different positions.

A win could see Saints two clear victories above the trap door to National League One and nudging that all important sixth place in the Guinness Premiership.

A loss could drag us down to within a point of Bristol at the bottom and perhaps back into another dogfight and, with games against the other two west country giants Bath and Gloucester in the following two weeks, not an ideal position to be in.

Of course this will not be lost on Bristol who have been in that dogfight from day one.

Before the season even started I am sure they looked on this fixture against the newly promoted club (Saints) as one of their must-win games.

It has been no secret that they have used the games in the other competitions in recent weeks purely with an eye on this fixture.

I am sure they will be throwing everything at us early on, but we go into the game certainly in the better form.

Bristol have yet to record a win this season in the Guinness Premiership, their single win coming in the European Challenge Cup, while recent wins over Llanelli, Montpellier and Toulon for the Saints mean we must travel west with some confidence.

I am sure Jim Mallinder and Dorian West will be keeping the players' feet firmly on the ground, and it will not be a case of pride before a fall with Bristol being given all due respect of a team fighting for their lives.

As for the outcome, well if we can weather that early storm, or perhaps even create one of our own, I think yet again our superior fitness will shine through and come Sunday evening we might well have that bit of a breathing space. By the time we welcome Bath to the Gardens the following week, who knows we might well be looking upwards with an eye on bigger prizes rather than worrying what is happening below....