Valenciennes coach Philippe Montanier is fully aware his side will be in for a tough test at St Etienne tomorrow.

VA head into the clash in good form, having only lost one of their past six Ligue 1 matches.

However, St Etienne have come into their own after a dreadful start to the season.

Moreover, they boast an impressive home record and saw off Bordeaux 3-1 in their last game at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

"It will be difficult because St Etienne beat the champions of France in their last game at the Geoffroy-Guichard," said Montanier, who spent his final season as a player at St Etienne.

"They are a team who manage to surpass themselves at home and I think they will improve more and more.

"It will be a good test for us. We always have respect for our opponents but we are conscious of our strengths. We know we are capable of doing good things away from home, even against an opponent of this quality."

Bobo Balde signed for VA on Wednesday and the former Celtic defender could make his debut tomorrow.

Mamadou Samassa is a doubt after suffering a knee injury in training this week.

St Etienne lost four of their opening five games but turned things around by securing back-to-back wins against high-flying Monaco and Bordeaux.

They slipped up against Montpellier last weekend and Alain Perrin has called for an immediate reaction.

"What's important is to react after a defeat," he told www.asse.fr. "So our aim is to wipe out the defeat against Montpellier."

He has warned his players that VA will present much the same challenge as Montpellier.

"Together with Montpellier they have the best attack in the league," added Perrin. "They have enjoyed a good start to the season using values which are similar to Montpellier's.

"So we have been forewarned. It's up to us to have a good match."

Perrin has a host of injury worries for tomorrow's clash and will be without captain Loic Perrin, Boubacar Sanogo, Mouhamadou Dabo, Sylvain Monsoreau, Vincent Plante, Moustapha Bayal and Emmanuel Riviere.

Yoann Andreu is suspended following his red card last week but Ilan and Cedric Varrault are back in training and could feature.