The visitors raced into a 3-0 lead half-time, with the second and third the result of comical defending then the hosts were booed off at the interval.
It was a first home defeat in five games since the arrival of Gerhard Struber as head coach and a deserved one after easily the most disappointing performance under the Austrian.
He made two changes from the side that lost at Bristol City on Saturday. Kilian Ludewig made his first start in English football at left-back in place of Ben Williams, who dropped to the bench against his hometown club, while well-again Sami Radlinger replaced Brad Collins in goal. Joint top-scorer Cauley Woodrow returned to the bench after missing four matches through injury.
Conor Chaplin had an excellent chance in the fifth minute when he was put clean through by Jacob Brown but his shot from the edge of the box went wide of the bottom left corner via a slight touch by goalkeeper Declan Rudd.
After that early scare, the visitors got on top and took the lead in the 18th minute after one of several intricate passing moves on the right of the home box. Following good work by Daniel Johnson and Allan Browne, right-back Darnell Fisher whipped in a low cross to Tom Barkhuizen who shot into the bottom right corner from eight yards out.
Brown then saw a shot from 25 yards easily saved by Rudd diving to his left, but the visitors made it 2-0 after 34 minutes. The hapless Mads Andersen lost the ball in the right corner to Barkuizen who advanced into the and crossed to Josh Harrop whose close-range effort was blocked by Aapo Halme then Johnson found the bottom right corner from six yards.
Marcel Ritzmaier then let fly with a 25-yard effort which Rudd sprang to his right to push away but the half ended with a disastrous goal for the hosts. Halme cleared the ball into Andersen which put Barhuizen clean through and his shot was half-saved by Radlinger but looped into the net.
Very little happened in the second half as Preston seemed content with their lead while a shell-shocked home side could not break them down despite enjoying a lot of possession.
Struber took Kenny Dougall off nine minutes into the second half, with Woodrow getting his first action of 2020. That meant Mowatt moved to the base of the midfield diamond with Woodrow at its tip. Luke Thomas was replaced by Callum Styles who made his first appearance since coming on at 4-1 down in the 5-1 loss at Preston on October 5.
Preston substitute Brad Potts, the former Barnsley man, fired wide from close range at a tight angle after meeting a right-wing cross. Radlinger then made his first save of the night in the 82nd minute as he moved to his right to easily gather a weak header. Harrop fired wide from close range after a good exchange of passes on the right of the box with former England international David Nugent.
Barnsley (4-4-2 diamond): Radlinger; J Williams, Andersen, Halme, Ludewig; Dougall (Woodrow 54mins), Ritzmaier, Thomas (Styles 61), Mowatt; Brown, Chaplin (Schmidt 75). Unused: Collins, Sibbick, Simoes, B Williams. Yellow cards: Woodrow.
Preston (4-3-3): Rudd; Fisher, Davies, Bauer, Rafferty; Pearson, Johnson (Potts 67mins), Browne; Barkhuizen (Nugent 74), Harrop, Sinclair (Maguire 67) Unused: Ripley, Clarke, Ledson, Stockley. Yellow cards: Harrop. Goals: Barkhuizen 19, 45; Johnson 34.
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