Nick Nurse insists he will not stop defending his players in their fight for a fair deal on court.

Even if it means missing key games in Brighton Bears' push for the British League title.

Nurse has confirmed he will appeal against a two-game ban resulting from his ejection along with Kendrick Warren in last Sunday's 24-point league thrashing at Scottish Rocks.

In his first interview since reflecting on last week's Trophy final heartbreak against Chester and an unhappy trek to Glasgow the following day, Bears' owner and head coach also:

Insisted his team did not choke in the final stages of their Trophy final defeat.

Argued Bears deserved to beat Chester rather than lose by two points.

Hit back at suggestions that his team played better without injured skipper Randy Duck.

Tipped his men to come bouncing back with an impressive display in the crucial home game against Sheffield Sharks at the Brighton Centre on Saturday (7pm).

Tickets are being rapidly snapped up for Saturday's top-of-the-table collision, which looks set to be Bears' biggest home league game since Sheffield last came to the Brighton Centre.

That was 51 weeks ago and saw Sharks win by 13 points to take a decisive step towards pipping Nurse's men to the title.

It was also the last time Bears lost at home in domestic action. Nineteen wins later, they are well placed to win the title, despite last weekend's double wobble.

As things stand they are seven wins from glory. Win on Saturday and that requirement will become four more victories from the last seven games.

Nurse will miss two of those games, against Leicester and Birmingham, if his appeal against last week's ejection is unsuccessful.

The fact he is appealing has delayed the ban, which would have covered tougher games with Rocks and Chester, but Nurse insists there is more to it than that.

He said: "When I feel my players are being hard done by I will always fight for them.

"Kendrick got three or four obviously bad decisions and was saying something so I called a timeout and went to get him and when I was out on court I said something as well What I said to the officials was pretty light but I will fight like hell for my players and that won't change."

Nurse, whose men have already won twice at Sheffield in the league, said: "This game has become big after last weekend, but still not as big as we thought it would be at one stage.

"We knew we wouldn't go four months without a hitch. I thought last weekend was tough travel-wise and prep-wise and we lost a couple of games but you saw the effort we put into the final.

"Watching the tape I felt we deserved to win the final. We were awfully tired at Rocks on Sunday and I will not read too much into that result.

"Yes, there's emotion in the camp. There's heartbreak but we haven't had any turmoil all season so the whole thing is magnified now."

Nurse denied his players had shown a lack of responsibility late in the Trophy final. That was the accusation from rival fans as Bears passed the ball repeatedly rather than looking to shoot.

He said: "That last play was exactly what I had drawn up. Move it from right to left and Kendrick get the shot. We executed apart from Rico (Alderson) taking too many threes but the ball didn't drop.

"Now we will have to pick ourselves up but I'm not that worried. I'm conscious we need to hurry our feet a bit more and play better help defence. We need to be able to finish a little bit better as well."

Duck was due to for treatment today on his adductor injury but has not featured in the last three games and the best he would appear to be able to hope for this weekend is a few minutes at Milton Keynes on Sunday (4pm).

The argument that Bears do not miss him, however, was surely blown out of the water by events last Saturday.

Nurse said: "Randy gets us through difficult games. That's his and Rico's biggest strength. They will get you some tough grind-out wins."

Wins do not come much tougher than against Sheffield. With a title beckoning, though, revenge to be exacted and a big crowd present, there are all sorts of reasons why Bears should come bouncing back on Saturday.