Sheffield Wednesday geared for tough tests as hectic October begins – images suggest Barry Bannan boost

The Owls play their first of eight matches in a busy month on Saturday as they make the trip to Staffordshire, and with seven of them being League One games it is a chance for them to make a real push for dominance in a relatively short space of time.

Darren Moore’s side rounded off September with an impressive 3-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers last weekend, and now face a seven-day spell in which they’ll travel to Stoke-on-Trent and Plymouth before welcoming Cheltenham Town.

The Wednesday boss knows that it won’t be easy against a side that have lost only one league game at home this season, but he says they’ll be ready.

Speaking about the upcoming game, Moore told the media, "We have got two real tough games coming up. We will dust ourselves down. We will get the data on Port Vale and work towards that one. It's a difficult place to go but we will be ready for it.”

Wednesday don’t have a good post-war record against the Vale at all, winning just five of their 15 matches since the start of the 1950s, and they lost their last visit to Vale Park in August 2009 by a score of 2-0.

The Owls did, however, win their last league encounter away in Burslem, winning 2-0 a couple of days after Christmas thanks to goals from Kenwyne Jones and Jon-Paul McGovern.

It’s 122 years since the first meeting of the two clubs in 1900 - a game that Wednesday won 3-0 - and this weekend’s visitors have won only three (of 14) games against Vale away from home since then.

Wednesday have a handful of injury concerns going into this weekend’s match, with Akin Famewo, Dennis Adeniran and Mark McGuinness out for a while longer, and the jury is still out on whether George Byers will recover from a foot injury in time.

There does, however, seem to be a boost on the Barry Bannan front after his ‘little knock’ against Wycombe Wanderers, with the club posting images of him training with the group ahead of the game on Saturday.

MORE: Owls star gives straightforward answer on fan pressure and squad quality