ROB Baxter has told his Exeter Chiefs side to ‘reset’ themselves ahead of their clash with fellow Gallagher Premiership strugglers Newcastle Falcons at Sandy Park on Saturday (3pm).

Defeat at Bristol last weekend means the Chiefs still sit just a place off the foot of the table which, ironically, is filled by this weekend’s visitors.

In a season of struggle for both clubs, something will need to give in this latest match-up, particularly for the Chiefs who, still have one eye on hauling in Northampton Saints and leapfrogging them into at least eighth spot in the division.

For that to happen, Baxter knows his side must rediscover their winning formula, starting against the Falcons, who have won just twice all season, one of which was the corresponding fixture 24-18 at Kingston Park back in October.

The Devonians have said that particular loss represented the low point of their season to date - and since then there have been shoots of recovery, including last week against the Bears, where the club were under the control of newly-appointed head coach Rob Hunter for the first time.

“I thought the performance we put in at Bristol was very positive, very pleasing and, hopefully, is a baseline for what we want to achieve over the rest of the season,” said Baxter.

“The pressure we’re putting on ourselves is that we want to improve, we want to get better. We want to put good performances in front of our home crowd more than anything else. We want to win games, so we’re putting that pressure on ourselves every week.

“What we’ve got to do is focus on the processes that enable us to get the wins. Our Achilles heel this season has been that our desperation to get a result has not brought out the best performances in us. We’ve almost got to reset ourselves and how we approach the minute-by-minute actions that allow you to stay in the moment.”

Ahead of kick-off, the Chiefs have made a number of changes to their starting line-up, including a new-look front-row trio if Scott Sio, Jack Yeandle and Josh Iosefa-Scott, as well as Franco Molina at lock, while behind Stu Townsend is added at scrum-half and Harvey Skinner comes in at full-back.

Exeter Chiefs: Harvey Skinner; Paul Brown-Bampoe, Henry Slade, Will Rigg, Josh Hodge; Ben Coen; Stu Townsend; Scott Sio, Jack Yeandle, Josh Iosefa-Scott; Dafydd Jenkins (capt), Franco Molina; Martin Moloney, Richard Capstick, Greg Fisilau.

Replacements: Max Norey, Kwenzo Blose, Jimmy Roots, Rusi Tuima, Kane James, Tom Cairns, Tamati Tua, Ben Hammersley