Brighton Bears' coach Mark Dunning has the full backing of his players, according to captain Michael Brown.

Dunning provoked an angry response from owner Romek Kriwald when he staged a sit-down protest during last weekend's Uni-ball Trophy defeat by Sheffield Sharks.

Kriwald accused him of not being "supportive of the team" during the fourth quarter when Dunning drew up a chair and watched impassively as his side were beaten for the seventh time in their last eight matches.

Dunning is still refusing to make any comment about the incident which has certainly put a strain on his relationship with Kriwald.

But Brown, who leads the team tomorrow in a crucial southern conference clash at Birmingham Bullets, insisted the players are right behind him.

He said: "Coach is exactly like every guy on the team in that he badly wants the side to succeed and we are fully behind him.

"He didn't give up on us last week, that is for sure. I'm a veteran of this league and I've seen what Mark did used as a tactic by coaches before.

"To be honest it had an effect on us.

"When we got in a huddle we could see he was angry.

"At that point we could have ended up losing by 30 or 40 points, but we turned it around and made the game a lot closer.

"Would we have done that if we didn't want to do well for him?

"It's hard for coach. We are as well prepared as any team in this league but we have struggled all season to transfer what we do in practice onto the court on game night and once a game starts Mark can't make us pick up our man or execute the shots, that's up to us."

Victory over Bullets tomorrow would enable Bears to go level on points with Birmingham in joint-fifth place and they will be boosted by the return of American forward Kevin Wallace who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury.

Dunning said: "We're a better team than our results suggest and sooner or later we are going to click "Birmingham have got a little more depth than us but we are capable of beating them."

Bears' road trip takes them to Chester Jets on Sunday (5.30pm) for their fifth Uni-ball Trophy tie.

They cannot qualify for the knockout stages after losing their first four games in Group A and Dunning is expected to give some of his fringe players extended court time.

He said: "We will obviously be trying to win, but it will give us the opportunity to work on things in a bona fide match situation."