Paul Heckingbottom believes the period between now and Christmas will be the most difficult of his time as head coach of Barnsley FC so far.

The newly-promoted Reds are tenth in the Championship, despite having picked up just one point from their last four games, and the head coach says the next three months before the January transfer window will test his small squad.

"The next ten to 12 weeks will be my biggest challenge so far without a doubt," Heckingbottom told the Chronicle.

"I'm over the moon with the quality and attitude of our players but it's no secret that our first team squad is not very big. We will probably start getting suspensions as the yellow cards start to mount up and there could be injuries as well.

"It's important that the players who aren't playing are ready to step into the first team because they will be needed. We need to make sure that we can bring players into the side and not lose any quality.

"It will be a very tough period in the lead up to Christmas and it will demand a lot from the players and the staff but we are all really looking forward to it.  We have not played all the clubs in the division yet. We have had a taste of the quality that is out there but we want to keep testing ourselves.

"We have the best job in the world and we just want to keep enjoying what we are doing and who knows where that will take us at the end of the season.  We have matched the vast majority of teams we have played and shown we can pick up points at this level."

While Adam Davies, Tom Bradshaw and Adam Armstrong have been away on international duty this week, the rest of the squad trained on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Oakwell before being given a long weekend off.

Heckingbottom said: "The break has come at the right time.  Quite a few players were starting to get little niggles from cumulative fatigue so it is important that they get a chance to rest.

"We have periodised training blocks around the international breaks and the players will have a little rest now before the next one starts."

The Reds boss said his players and staff are looking forward to the visits of Fulham and Newcastle United when they return to action. He said: "They are two former Premier League clubs and those will be two great occasions. You still pinch yourselves when you come up against teams like that after where we were last season.

"But we can't be intimidated by them. Newcastle have spent a lot of money, so what? Let's go out and express ourselves and try to beat them."

Overall, Heckingbottom is delighted with a total of 16 points from the first 11 games since promotion, despite the disappointment of Saturday's 2-1 loss at Yorkshire rivals Leeds United.

He said: "I am very pleased with our season so far.  We had a chat after the Leeds game. The boys enjoyed the way they played in that second half and we also said that 16 points from 11 games was good.  We would have snapped someone's hand off if they had offered it to us at the start of the season.  But we also said that we had to try to get even more points from the next 11 games we play."