Barnsley are six points clear inside the Championship's top six after a 1-0 win at Huddersfield Town on Wednesday evening .
Substitute Daryl Dike scored an overhead kick midway through the second half to secure victory in a game his side totally dominated, creating a host of chances while the hosts had just one.
Seventh-placed Reading could only draw at Luton Town so are six points behind the Reds with three games remaining.
Valerien Ismael made three changes from the team that lost at Coventry City on Sunday, with Carlton Morris, Dominik Frieser and Michael Sollbauer coming in for Daryl Dike, Conor Chaplin and Toby Sibbick.
The Reds were on top in the first half, missing three clear-cut chances and having several other half-opportunities while Huddersfield did not create anything of note and looked rattled by their visitors' pressing.
Barnsley should have had a penalty in the first minute when Rarmani Edmonds-Green headed the ball against his own hand from a cross by Callum Brittain after a clever backheel by Morris. If he had not punched it into the air, three Barnsley players were nearby and could have reached it as it dropped in the six-yard box.
Cauley Woodrow could have opened the scoring in the sixth minute when everyone stopped as he looked to be offside from a ball over the top but the assistant did not raise his flag and Barnsley's top-scorer fired wide from the a tight angle on the right of the six-yard box.
Frieser should have scored in the 24th minute but, eight yards out in the centre of the box, he toe-poked a weak effort straight at the goalkeeper after a good work by Woodrow to beat a man on the right of the box and find his team-mate.
Woodrow then shot straight at the goalkeeper Ryan Schofield from outside the box before Alex Mowatt's low free-kick went just wide of the bottom left corner. Woodrow then sent an overhead kick well wide after Michal Helik headed on a Frieser throw-in.
Mowatt missed another fine chance in first half injury-tine as he fired over from 15 yards out after very good work on the left of the box by Morris who pulled the ball back perfectly.
Dike came on for the injured Frieser just before the break the the Reds started the second half extremely well with a host of early chances.
After Woodrow saw a shot deflected just wide of the top right corner, Mowatt's resulting corner bounced twice on the crossbar before the referee saw a foul then Styles' cross was headed by Morris but Schofield scrambled it out of his bottom right corner.
The breakthrough came on 65 minutes when Huddersfield looked to counter-attack but Brittain made an excellent sliding tackle then Styles and Mowatt worked the ball to Morris whose deflected cross from the left of the area bounced in the six-yard box and Dike sent an overhead kick into the net.
It was almost 2-0 when Brittain ran onto a lofted Mowatt pass on the right of the box and shrugged off Duane Holmes then crossed low but Morris could not quite touch it in. Mads Andersen then beat Schofield to a Mowatt free-kick and Morris' looping header was nodded off the line by Naby Sarr then the follow-up cross by Sollbauer was volleyed by Helik onto the underside of the bar from close range.
Huddersfield had their first chance in the 80th minute when a low cross from the right was sliced by the otherwise-excellent Sollbauer to Lewis O'Brien whose 15-yard shot was powerful but straight at Brad Collins who held it easily.
Sarr again headed off the line in the 84th minute after Woodrow headed a Mowatt corner then Sollbauer's header was deflected just wide.
Dike was then put clean through by a poor back pass by Jonathan Hogg but was denied one-on-one by the goalkeeper.
Huddersfield (3-5-2): Schofield; Edmonds-Green (Thomas 67mins), Keogh, Sarr; Rowe (High 58), Hogg, Bacuna (Eiting 77), O'Brien, Holmes (Aarons 77); Koroma (Ward 67), Sanogo. Subs: Pereira, Stearman, Dunahey, Brown. Yellow cards: Hogg.
Barnsley (3-4-3): Collins; Sollbauer, Helik, Andersen; Brittain, Mowatt, Palmer (Williams 78mins), Styles; Woodrow, Morris, Frieser (Dike 45+1). Subs: Walton, Halme, Sibbick, Oduor, Chaplin, Adeboyejo, Moon. Yellow cards: Andersen, Morris. Goals: Dike 65.