Like the Saints, Bath have won both of their opening two Aviva Premiership Rugby matches, coming from behind to beat Worcester at Sixways before overcoming London Wasps last Saturday afternoon.
So Mallinder is under no illusions as to how difficult Friday night will be.
"Bath will be a big challenge," he said. "They have started the season very well. In Round 1 they came from a long way behind and held their nerve to win at Sixways, while against Wasps last weekend they put together some dangerous attacking moves.
"The Rec is always a tough place to play. It is a place where the fans are right on top of you and where it can be intimidating for visiting teams. So it is up to us as to how we respond, and we believe that we can do that in the right way.
"At times in our first two games we have played well and scored good tries. But we have also been guilty of not finishing games off and this is something we will be looking to improve. Despite having only had a five-day turnaround between matches out training has been very positive and all of the players are determined to keep our good start to the season going this Friday."
Tomorrow night's game is being shown exclusively live on ESPN, with coverage starting at 7pm. The Saints' official Facebook page and Twitter feed will have the usual match blog and score updates, while BBC Radio Northampton will have live commentary.
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY BATH
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 3
Recreation Ground
Friday, September 14th, 2012
Kick off 7:45pm
15 Ben FODEN
14 Ken PISI
13 Dom WALDOUCK
12 Luther BURRELL
11 Vasily ARTEMYEV
10 Stephen MYLER
9 Lee DICKSON
1 Soane TONGA'UIHA
2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt)
3 Tom MERCEY
4 Samu MANOA
5 Christian DAY
7 Tom WOOD
8 Rhys OAKLEY
Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Paul DORAN JONES
19 Mark SORENSON
21 Martin ROBERTS
22 Ryan LAMB
