Jack Adams is unconcerned by Exeter's flying start to the season – because he knows Bristol are heading firmly in the right direction.

Unbeaten Exeter lead the Championship table by seven points after 10 matches, with Bristol their closest pursuers.

And although Bristol, who were relegated from the Guinness Premiership at the end of last season, have lost twice already in the league, Adams believes they are on the up.

Since losing at Doncaster last month, Paul Hull's side have scored eight tries in beating Coventry 46-28 and five tries in a 33-8 win at Plymouth.

And with promotion to the Premiership being decided by end-of-season play-offs, former Gloucester centre Adams believes Bristol have things firmly under control – even though they have already lost to Exeter.

"We've played against Exeter and we've seen them play against other teams," said the 23-year-old.

"We know what we did wrong and we know where we can expose them for the next game, so their start is not a huge worry.

"Exeter will be looking below them at the teams who are winning, so it doesn't concern us.

"They could win every game of the season and then lose in the semi-finals to the team that finished fifth. It's a strange league to go into, but it's not worrying us that Exeter keep winning."

And with the top eight teams qualifying for the promotion play-offs, Adams knows Bristol Rugby's ambitions remain on track despite those losses against Exeter and Doncaster.

"It's definitely a different way of looking at a league this season," he said.

"You don't have to win every game, as long as you're in that top eight – but we want to finish first. You've got a slightly better group if you finish first – and then you want to finish top of that pool and get a home semi-final.

"We're still looking to win every game, but technically you could finish eighth and get promoted or finish ninth and get relegated.

"Everyone is still getting used to the concept and it's going to be interesting towards the end of the season."

Bristol have really turned on the style in their past two matches – and Adams is looking for a repeat when Nottingham visit the Memorial Stadium on Sunday.

The visitors had stormed into second place following a run of seven straight victories, but have lost their last two games and sit five points below Bristol.

"As soon as we played well against Coventry, our main focus for Plymouth was to have another solid 80 minutes – and we did," he said.

"We scored five tries in the torrential rain, which was another great 80-minute performance. Now we're aiming for another one – and the good teams will always do that. A couple of times this season we've started well and then slackened off, but everyone knows what they have to do now.

"We've done it twice in a row, so we shouldn't have a problem doing it three times in a row. We've definitely got the ball rolling now and it seems to be clicking a little bit more for us.

"We stick to our game week in, week out and we've shown we can do it with back-to-back performances – now we've got to make it a third one."

Bristol (from) - Backs: L Arscott, T Arscott, D Norton, J Adams, L Eves, J Fatialofa, A Jarvis, C Ashwin, J Spice (capt), R Shaw, S Alford. Forwards: A Clarke, M Irish, D Blaney, O Hayes, D Crompton, W Thompson, D Barry, N Budgett, R Winters, J Phillips, I Grieve, R Pennycook, J Merriman, D Montagu.