MICHAEL Foley has set Bath the target of three wins in their final five matches to ensure their Premiership survival.

The Recreation Ground team director believes that will be enough to spare his side from an ignominious exit from the top flight for the first time in their history.

But if Foley's prediction is correct, it means Bath will have to do something that has so far eluded them this season win on their travels.

The former Australian hooker said: "I don't have a specific target but if we won three of those games we would be in a good position. I think that would make it certain.

"It's a desperate situation. I said to the players last week that we had a six-game season remaining and now we've lost the first game in that. But we have to be realistic enough to know that the second division stares us in the face."

Bath have hit one of their worst spells of the season - they also lost their first four matches of the campaign at the wrong time, but Foley insists his side still have what it takes to get out of trouble.

And after the capitulation to Saracens two weeks ago, he held up his team's fighting spirit as one reason why Bath can still escape.

"To be successful and to stave off relegation we need to maintain the fight we showed out there," he insisted. "Against Saracens, we didn't expect the fight to disappear like it did, but I think we got that back. The way the team has approached training has been absolutely first class and I've got a good feeling about the way they fought. But the skills certainly let us down."

Gloucester fly-half Ludovic Mercier celebrated his new three-year contract with the second-placed West Country outfit by booting 19 points in a 36-13 victory over Saracens. The tries came from Robert Todd, Terry Fanolua and Andy Gomarsall.

There was a shock for leaders Leicester yesterday as they lost their 100 per cent record with a 36-24 defeat at Wasps.