CONSISTENCY is the key and Sedgley Park will be hoping they have it in abundance when they head down to Devon on Friday in preparation for Saturdays league game against the Exeter Chiefs.

Whether or not they can replicate last week's superb performance, which saw them emerge with a bonus point after narrowly losing 22-29 to title favourites Harlequins, when they looked capable of at least a draw, remains to be seen.

But player-coach Tim Fourie for one will be heading down the M5 in a positive frame of mind.

"I was very pleased with what I saw last week, the boys did almost everything Andy Northey, Jimmy Ponton and I asked of them," he said.

"Having Phil Gazzola, Ian Voortman and Phil Jones back in the side helped us enormously. 'Jonesy' in particular is a phenomenal player, he helps us to play the game in the right areas, he gives us a totally different dimension.

"'Voorts' looked superb. He buried Andrew Mehrtens and Will Greenwood with his tackling and in fact everyone raised their game; if we can sustain that level of performance for the rest of the season I'm convinced we can force our way into the top six.

"We'll be going down to Exeter looking for a win. But there is always a danger of falling flat on our faces; after hyping ourselves up and producing a magnificent display against Harlequins we have to guard against complacency.

"We've trained really well this week and hopefully we will have our preparation spot on once more.

"I really believe that with out strongest 22 on song we can beat anyone. We just have to produce that level of performance consistently, but the guys' body language is different, it is confident."

As for the opposition: "They are struggling with injuries, they've lost inspirational captain Rob Baxter, and they may be one of those teams that actually struggles to adjust to going full time," he said.

"But we will not be underestimating the task ahead of us. Last season they beat us twice (39-25 at home and 44-23 away). We know it will be a tough game but we also know we can win it."

The Chiefs are currently seventh - four places and five points above the Tigers - in the National Division One table

Last weekend they were in Powergen Trophy action in Yorkshire, where they ran in nine tries to comfortably beat Bradford & Bingley 3-57.

Their league campaign got underway with a demoralising 35-13 defeat away to county rivals Plymouth Albion.

They hit back the following week with a 21-10 defeat of bottom club London Welsh, followed by a 23-17 success at Doncaster.

However, October brought another defeat to south west neighbours in the form of a 43-16 home loss to the Cornish Pirates.

They then shrugged off a 17-10 loss at Earth Titans to run in five tries to beat Pertemps Bees 38-22, before suffering the heaviest loss so far this season in National One, when they fell to a crushing 70-5 reverse to Harlequins at the Stoop.

However, they managed to pick themselves up and get back to winning ways by the narrowest of margins, pipping Nottingham 19-18 at home, courtesy of a last gasp drop goal.

The club boasts a full-time squad, strength and conditioning coach and head coach in Ian Bremner

They recently appointed Nigel Melville, a former head coach at Gloucester on a consultancy basis, along with specialist performance analyst and defence coach, John Kain, who has been credited for the return of Castleford Tigers to rugby leagues Super League, to help boss Ian Bremner.

They were initially without prolific points scorer Tony Yapp, who was recovering from a groin operation.

The former England A and Under 21 player has top-scored for the Chiefs in each of the last tree seasons, and now appears to have fully recovered.

However, they have also suffered from long term injuries to Tony Rocques, Ali Murdock and Sam Blyth.

This could be the Tigers' last ever visit to the Chiefs County Ground, as Exeter hope to be moving to a brand new facility at Sandy Park on the edge of the town, which should be up and running by September 2006.