On paper, a match-up against the second seeds and BBL Trophy winners that requires them to win at least one game on the road would make Sheffield Sharks underdogs in their British Basketball League play-off semi-final with Cheshire Phoenix.

But Kipper Nichols - and one senses the rest of the Sharks squad - is having none of it.

Not when you consider the wave fourth seeds Sheffield are riding right now as they head to Ellesmere Port on Friday night for game one of the three-game series.

Sharks travel west buoyed by their emotional win in three absorbing contests with the Leicester Riders, achieved last weekend by a dramatic buzzer beater to knot the series in Leicester and then they’re crowning moment of a resounding 17-point win at a raucous Canon Medical Arena on Sunday.

Kipper Nichols, right (No 7), and Prentiss Nixon celebrate Sheffield Sharks' game three win over Leicester Riders (Picture: Adam Bates)

“We’re not underdogs at all,” insisted Nichols, one of their longest-serving and most popular players.

“Every opponent we respect the same, but we have the utmost confidence in ourselves as a team and our capabilities.

“We have a great feeling in the locker room right now and we have a lot of confidence in ourselves.”

For Nichols, the Leicester win was a defining moment for this team after first-round losses in each of the last three years - but not an end point.

Kipper Nichols in action for Sheffield Sharks (Picture: Tony Johnson)

“Yeah it felt like we’d got over a hurdle, but it wasn’t like we’d caught lightning, I think this is not the end of our season,” he said.

“We’ve been turning a corner slowly but surely and I think that was a time when it all came together. It was very important that all 10 of us contributed on Sunday because it’s going to take all of us to win it. It’s going to be a team effort. We’ve got the capability to do it if we perform in that manner.

“We now need to take a bit of that momentum into Cheshire. They live and die by the three-pointer so we have to gameplan accordingly.”

A reliable three-point shooter and good defensive option, particularly with his rebounding, small forward Nichols has had to step up as much as anybody to fill the gap left by the Sharks’ injured starting centre Bennett Koch.

Oh his evolving role, Nichols said: “Stepping in at the 5 spot, guarding the bigger guys, but otherwise not too much. We’ve got a lot of guys who are versatile in terms of position and I think we match up well with everybody.”

Game two is Sunday 4.35pm at Canon Medical Arena.

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'We're no underdogs' - Kipper Nichols and Sheffield Sharks issue defiant play-off message to Cheshire Phoenix