Barnsley suffered their heaviest loss of the season as they went down 4-0 at home to Championship leaders Bournemouth on Friday evening.
The visitors went 2-0 up at half-time then doubled their lead in the second half with the goals being caused by a mixture of high-quality attacking play by one of the promotion favourites and also very sloppy defending from the Reds.
The result took the Cherries top of the table and left their hosts 15th, as they slipped down a place due to the goal difference.
Valerien Ismael kept the same team that beat Birmingham City 2-1 away on Tuesday, while the bench was also the same.
Bournemouth almost took the lead in the second minute when goalkeeper Jack Walton charged out of his area to try to intercept a pass but was beaten to it by Sam Surridge who fired wide of the empty goal from 25 yards out on the right.
England international Dominic Solanke then headed wide from close range under pressure from Callum Brittain after meeting a Surridge cross.
Barnsley came close in the tenth minute when Victor Adeboyejo flicked a long ball to Cauley Woodrow who found Conor Chaplin whose back heel flick allowed Alex Mowatt to shoot from just outside the box but Asmir Begovic dived to his right to save. Begovic also denied Mads Andersen from a tight angle on the right of his six-yard box after the centre-back was found by a dinked Herbie Kane free-kick.
The opening goal came in the 12th minute when, after a nice move opened Barnsley up on their left, Adam Smith brought the ball inside and found Philip Billing who shot into the bottom right corner from just outside the box.
It was nearly 2-0 soon after when Billing's low cross from the left was nudged by David Brooks to Solanke and he wriggled past both Michael Sollbauer and Michael Helik before his shot from a tight angle on the left of the six-yard box was smothered by Walton.
The game calmed down after a frantic first 20 minutes then the Reds had a good spell with Adeboyejo unable to control a Mowatt pass in the box which would have left him with a tap-in while, after more good work by the captain, Chaplin's cross whizzed across the face of goal.
The Reds came extremely close to a leveller on 40 minutes when another quick free-kick by Kane found Chaplin on the left and his low cross was met by a sliding Helik at the back post whose effort hit Andersen two yards out and went just wide.
But the hosts were punished in first half injury-time when Woodrow was tackled by Lewis Cook in his half then Solanke beat Helik to the ball and powered past the Polish centre-back in the box before firing past Walton from six yards out on the left.
It was 3-0 seven minutes after the interval when Diego Rico curled a free-kick from the right wing into the top right corner.
Ismael made a triple change with Luke Thomas, Dominik Frieser and Clarke Oduor coming on for Adeboyejo, Chaplin and Callum Styles then, five minutes later, Aapo Halme replaced Helik.
Woodrow had Barnsley's first shot of the second half midway through it as his low 20-yard effort was pushed around the bottom right corner by Begovic. Thomas then curled wide from a similar distance minutes later.
But the fourth Cherries goal arrived in the 68th minute when Kane tried to pass to Sollbauer but overhit it and played Surridge through on goal and the striker blasted a shot through Walton then it trickled over the line.
Andersen then got away with a wild two-footed challenge on substitute Dan Gosling which earned him a yellow card when he could have been sent off.
Walton then saved from a right-sided shot by Rodrigo Riquelme who had just come off the bench before Mowatt blazed a long-range strike well off-target.
Barnsley: Walton; Sollbauer, Helik (Halme 64mins), Andersen; Brittain, Mowatt, Kane (Palmer 83), Styles (Oduor 59); Adeboyejo (Frieser 59), Woodrow, Chaplin (Thomas 59). Unused: Collins, James, Miller, Schmidt. Yellow cards: Andersen.
Bournemouth: Begovic; Kelly, S Cook, Mepham; Smith (Kikenny 90mins), L Cook (Riquelme 81), Billing (Oforborh 90), Brooks (Gosling 71m), Rico; Surridge, Solanke (Anthony 71) . Unused: Travers, Simpson, Zemura, Stanislas. Goals: Billing 12, Solanke 45+1, Rico 52, Surridge 68.