Bristol Rugby 26 Exeter Chiefs 35: Bristol surrendered leadership of the Championship – and their unbeaten start to the season – as four-try Exeter moved top of the table following a Memorial Stadium thriller.

Paul Hull's side started and finished the contest terribly, shipping 13 points in the first 17 minutes, and 12 in the final 15, to hand an early psychological edge to Exeter in the race for promotion to the Guinness Premiership.

Head coach Hull expects the return fixture at Sandy Park in December will not be the only time these sides meet again before promotion is decided, with both seemingly well on course to reach the play-offs.

And with 17 matches of the regular season – plus the play-off programme – still to come, his side have plenty of time to work on the defensive flaws that cost them so dearly in this top-of-the-table epic.

But this will surely act as a wake-up call for Bristol Rugby, who should have gone on to seal victory after fighting back to draw level at 23-23 after earlier falling 23-6 behind.

"It was a physical encounter and there were mistakes on both sides," said Hull.

"The errors on our side cost us dearly, because they capitalised on those errors and scored at crucial times. It was character-building stuff at times and we'll learn from this.

"It's a long season and we all know there's the play-off system, but we don't want to lose games and there's no excuse. We want to win every game.

"We're disappointed to have lost, but it is what it is and we've got to make sure we start and finish games better."

Bristol were 6-0 down inside eight minutes after two successful penalty attempts from Gareth Steenson – and it was the impressive fly-half who capitalised on an Adrian Jarvis error on 16 minutes to extend the visitors' lead.

Jarvis – who finished with a 100 per cent record from the tee – attempted to spark a Bristol attack by chipping the ball over the Exeter defence, but only managed to find Steenson's grateful hands.

He set off up-field, eventually passing to the supporting Matt Cornwell, who crossed under the posts to give Steenson a simple conversion for a 13-0 lead.

Bristol rallied and should have made more of a five-metre line-out after Jarvis sent a penalty to touch – only to see set-piece ball stolen by the visitors.

Jarvis opted to kick the next two penalties – succeeding with both to bring his side back to within seven points at 13-6.

But Exeter ended the first half in complete command, Steenson adding an injury-time penalty before Richie Baxter burrowed over from close range for the Chiefs' second try, which Steenson again converted.

Bristol trailed 23-6 at the break and were staring down the barrel – but their fightback in the 25 minutes after the restart was stirring.

First they had to ride their luck, Cornwell knocking on a metre short of the line, before a display of fighting spirit and attacking precision hauled them firmly back into the contest.

Jarvis' 45-metre penalty cut Exeter's lead to 14 points – and two tries in five minutes brought parity. The impressive Junior Fatialofa was the first Bristol man to go over, running through the midfield to take a perfectly-executed line-out before giving Matt Jess the slip to score.

Then Bristol quickly moved play from one wing to the other following another line-out, with Lee Robinson supplying Tom Arscott, whose delicate chip beat Emyr Lewis and fell kindly for the on-rushing Dan Norton to score.

The momentum was well and truly with Bristol – but it lasted a mere two minutes before Exeter regained the lead. Steenson threw a long pass to Phil Dollman, and with the Bristol defence having been pulled out of shape, the centre was afforded a direct route to the line. Steenson missed the conversion – and Jarvis soon kicked another penalty to set up a tense finale.

But the crucial play went in favour of Exeter, Bristol messing up a 10-metre defensive line-out and allowing the Chiefs to set up an attack from which replacement hooker Simon Alcott powered over.

With Steenson converting, Bristol Rugby were denied even a losing bonus point and slipped to third in the table.

"We showed our true colours early in the second half and got ourselves back to 23-23," said Hull.

"The game is about momentum – and that's when we needed to raise it again. We had to raise it a lot in the second half – and we did that by clawing back 17 points – but then we couldn't push on again to nudge ourselves into the lead.

"I'm sure we'll be playing Exeter a few more times this season. We always knew the threat they posed.

"I said at the start that we knew which teams would be threatening towards the end of the season – and Exeter are one of them."