THEY often say a league campaign is not seen as a sprint, but more of a marathon effort. If that's the case, Exeter Chiefs continue to plod along nicely in the pursuit of Championship success.

Saturday's 45-11 victory over visiting Coventry not only helped Rob Baxter's side maintain their unblemished record in the league so far this season, but once more stretched their advantage at the summit to six points.

It has – to date – been a well-constructed plan of attack from the Chiefs. However, it's one they need to not only maintain but, at the same time, fine tune as they gear themselves up for what will be a testing finale to the season.

Based on this latest showing, the current signs continue to look promising and Baxter knows as much. Winning games always breeds confidence and at the moment the table-topping Chiefs have a distinct swagger about themselves.

The slick operation now in place at Sandy Park – both on and off the field – has made the Chiefs the envy of many of their Championship contemporaries. That is in stark contrast to their latest opponents Coventry, who arrived in Devon at the weekend still in a state of turmoil.

The Midlands club were last week placed into administration and their very future remains up in the air due to mounting debts. However, a helping hand from the Chiefs [they agreed to fund their travel costs for Saturday's fixture] ensured they were at least able to turn up and provide a notable form of resistance to Baxter's boys.

To their credit, Coventry did not allow their recent off-field misgivings to distract them during a bright opening to this latest contest. Indeed, Phil Maynard's side were more than happy to mix it with the Chiefs during the early exchanges – and with just seven minutes played, winger Ollie Grove thundered over a penalty to break the game's deadlock.

Exeter's response was immediate, however, as fly-half Danny Gray plundered a penalty two minutes later, before then adding another just 60 seconds later in an incident which also saw Coventry flanker Aaron Carpenter dispatched to the sin-bin for a professional foul just yards from his own try-line.

Although the Chiefs continued to dominate most facets of the game, the visitors refused to lie down and they drew level on 24 minutes when Grove added a second penalty.

Sadly for Coventry that would be as close as they would get to the Chiefs for the remainder of the game. Paul McKenzie's stunning break out from deep inside his own half helped to release scrum-half Haydn Thomas, who scampered his way over beneath the sticks for Gray to convert Exeter's opening try.

Five minutes before the interval and the Chiefs added a second touchdown. Gray was this time the architect as his cross-field kick was palmed back into play by the impressive McKenzie and there was centre Phil Dollman to collect the loose ball and dot down from a yard out.

Coventry were afforded one final scoring chance in stoppage time – this after the Exeter front-row had been harshly penalised for a scrum infringement – but Grove was this time unable to land his 40-metre effort.

On the resumption, the Chiefs were quickly back into their stride and with Gray stretching their advantage to 15 points courtesy of a third penalty. At this juncture, it was merely a matter of just how many points the home side were going to rack up.

That was answered a little more in the 48th minute when, following a line-out move, referee Terry Hall lost patience with the blatant spoiling tactics of the visitors and awarded a penalty try, which Gray duly converted.

Now, like a pack of hounds chasing a tiring fox, the home forwards were relentless in their pursuit of further points – more of which came when, following a superb driving maul that made 20 metres, prop Chris Budgen peeled off the back before handing off Coventry winger Romain Plantney to score a fourth try.

Coventry did their best to thwart the home charge but, with eight minutes remaining, the Chiefs again penetrated the visiting rearguard as this time replacement Mark Foster coasted his way over following a slick handling move. Gray again added the extras to make it 40-6.

Even then the Chiefs were far from finished and with Coventry looking a beleaguered bunch, it was the turn of Saul Nelson to add his name to the scoring charts, the hooker burrowing his way over following another powerful push from the Exeter pack.

With time all but up, it was left to the visitors to have the final say when, following a dynamic burst from centre Drew Locke through the heart of the Exeter midfield, the ball was shipped to fellow centre Chris Lewis, who crossed for a worthy consolation score.

Afterwards, Chiefs head coach Baxter praised the way his side had again gone about their business, whilst at the same time highlighted how we felt his side had made great strides in the past 12 months.

"It was another slow burner of a game, but we tend to be involved in those a lot these days," said Baxter. "Tactically we got a lot of things right early in the game and it helped keep the pressure off us.

"I know at times it wasn't perfect. We kicked direct to touch a few times and had a couple of knock-ons, but it avoids you being put under pressure early in the game and it allows you to build your way into games.

"It means as the opposition tire or we start to get a feel for games, we can exploit the situation. We scored some very good tries and we were in control for the whole game. The only real disappointment was that we let them in for that try at the end – that dents your defensive stats a bit. On the whole, though, if you think these guys drew with Bedford last week and then we put 40 points on them, you can't complain too much."

Again Baxter praised the patience of his side, a feature he believes has changed significantly in the past 12 months.

He added: "There's been a major sea-change in us as a team from last season where we'd come out of the blocks flying quite a few times and then we'd be fading or would struggle through the second half and the game would go dead. That's not happening this season.

"We spent a lot of time in pre-season talking about how the effect of the bench would work and how you make every impact a positive impact. We're controlling the game really well in the early stages and we're accelerating through the gears in the latter stages. If we can keep doing that I think it's a formula that guarantees success."

Next up for the Chiefs is this Saturday's derby date with in-form Plymouth Albion at the Brickfields and Baxter is already relishing locking horns with their near neighbours.

"We might just crank it up this week because it's a local derby," he added. "We've had a good record against Plymouth in the last few seasons, so it will be really disappointing if we were to go down there and under-perform.

"To be fair to them, they've had a good result against Bedford today, they are playing well and they have a well structured game. But as I've said lots of times this season, I'd rather concentrate on ourselves. We know we are going to have to go there and perform well, but that's what we will prepare to do this week. Derbies like this are always great occasions."