Sheffield Wednesday will face a different beast in Accrington Stanley this weekend – but they’ll be without a player Owls fans will remember

But the two sides are both very different beasts to the ones that stepped out at the Wham Stadium a touch over three weeks ago.

Back then Wednesday had drawn five consecutive League One matches and had just tumbled out of the FA Cup courtesy of a 3-0 hammering at Plymouth Argyle.

Stanley on the other hand had suffered back-to-back Saturday defeats of 4-1 and 5-1 and had just one win in five. A 4-0 defeat at Burton Albion after the Wednesday defeat saw manager John Coleman come under mumblings of pressure.

But he came out swinging and the Lancashire minnows have won three of their last four matches – including an impressive 1-0 win over Bolton Wanderers last time out – to climb into midtable.

Coleman’s men have been served a blow, however, in that club captain Seamus Conneely will miss out, as well as eye-catching Burnley loanee Joel Mumbongo, who scored a classy goal past his parent club team mate Bailey Peacock-Farrell last time the two sides met.

“Seamus carried on [against Wimbledon] and possibly shouldn’t have,” Coleman said.

“He’ll probably be out for four or five weeks. Joel slipped over in training and he’s torn his knee ligament, so he’s probably going to be out for the season.”

Darren Moore may have players back for this weekend’s clash in which the Owls will be hoping to extend a run of 12 league matches unbeaten.