'Bigger club' Sheffield Wednesday must not fall into old trap at Accrington Stanley

The Owls have fallen into a trap of dropping points at the so-called ‘smaller clubs’ in League One this season and heading into the second third of the season need to build up a head of steam if they are to claw their way towards the top end of the table.

Wednesday haven’t been in the same division at Stanley in 129 years and the Wham Stadium has been sold out ahead of their visit, with home manager John Coleman having already commented on an opportunity for his side to claim a scalp.

“It’s maybe a concentration side of things,” Bannan said. “When it’s a big game, your Sunderlands, your Wigan aways, you’re maybe more switched on. It’s something we need to work on.

“I’ve touched on it before, everybody is raising their game to try and beat us and that’s the way it’s been. When we’ve been away to Cheltenham, Wimbledon, they’ve got a point and celebrated like it’s three.”

It has been noted that clubs have sold out grounds for the visit of Wednesday this season and that at times there has been a sense of occasion when the Owls come to town.

Bannan admits the team have noticed this and have to learn to combat it.

He said: “That’s the way it’s going to be, it’s not something that’s going to surprise us and we’ve spoken about it all season.

“We have to be more concentrated on every single game, there’s no god-given right to win a game because we’re a bigger club.

“We have to be switched on. We’ve drawn a line in the sand on what happened this week and we need to go now. We have to go now.

“I can’t see a team that’s going to run away with it [the league], they all seem quite well matched at the top of the table, there’s not much in it.

“It’ll be right down to the wire I would have thought and hopefully we’re going to be able to put ourselves in that category.”