Barnsley produced a very poor performance in a 2-0 home loss to Yorkshire rivals Leeds United at Oakwell on Saturday lunchtime.
The visitors opened the scoring midway through the first half, through a mistake by home goalkeeper Adam Davies, then added a second just before the break.
Paul Heckingbottom made five changes to the side that lost 1-0 at home to Cardiff on Tuesday, reverting back to the team which drew at Norwich in the previous Saturday match. Angus MacDonald, fit again after a foot injury, Joe Williams, who served his one-game suspension, Harvey Barnes, Tom Bradshaw and George Moncur came back in. Dropping out were Matty Pearson, Gary Gardner, Cameron McGeehan, Ryan Hedges and Mamadou Thiam who was not in the squad with teenage striker Victor Adeboyejo appearing on the bench for the first time.
After a dull first 20 minutes, Leeds took the lead midway through the first half. Ezgjan Alioski, who had earlier fired wide from the edge of the box following a weak punch by Davies, played a clever pass to Samuel Saiz who ran 20 yards into the Reds half before unleashing a low 20-yard shot which Davies could only touch into his bottom right corner. It was a mistake by the home goalkeeper, after the ball seemed to bounce just in front of him.
Kalvin Phillips and Saiz then had efforts off target from long range before Davies dived to his right to easily keep out a low 25-yard Caleb Ekuban effort. Barnsley's only chance in the first half was a Liam Lindsay header from a Zeki Fryers free-kick which he put wide from a tight angle.
Leeds got their second deep in first half injury-time when Fryers and Harvey Barnes could not get the ball off Luke Ayling who nudged it on to Alioski and the Leeds midfielder curled a low 20-yard effort into the bottom left corner with Davies having no chance this time.
Barnes and Ayling had earlier been booked after a scuffle when the Reds winger thought the Leeds defender had tried to win a penalty by diving in the box. Barnes then committed two fouls which the visitors thought should have earned him a second yellow but the referee was lenient.
Barnes was substituted at the break along with Moncur as the replacements were Gardner and Ike Ugbo, who joined Bradshaw up front in a 4-4-2.
Pablo Hernandez almost added a third two minutes into the second half when his free-kick took a big deflection but bounced just wide with Davies wrong-footed. At the other end, Williams blasted over from 20 yards then floated in a free-kick which was flicked on by Ugbo and easily caught by goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald.
Hernandez put Ekuban through on goal but the angle was tight on the left and he shot into the side netting. Liam Cooper then headed straight at Davies from a Hernandez free-kick.
Gardner wasted a good shooting chance when he fired straight at Wiedwald from 20 yards then substitute Ryan Hedges forced the goalkeeper into a good save after a fine run down the left wing.
Barnsley had plenty of attacks late on but very few chances as their visitors saw out a comfortable win.
