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It was truly a game of two halves for Blues who impressed in the second half following a distinctly average first half.
In-form Mike Sheron should have put the visitors ahead after just 2 minutes, when a static Blues defence stood and watched as he surged through, only to fire over the bar when better placed to score.
Blues themselves started in a fairly lively manner, with debutant Stern John and the returning Paul Devlin both looking to get involved from the off.
However, the first half was more-or-less a simple exhibition of poor defending by both sides.
Barnsley troubled Blues with every set piece they had, with captain Chris Morgan particularly menacing, whilst Barnsley's defence failed to cope with Geoff Horsfield, who in turn failed to cope with converting chances.
Blues were far better in the second half, and took the lead through John after 51 minutes.
Horsfield created havoc in the penalty area and turned provider on this occasion by laying the ball off to John who tapped in from some 6 yards out for a goal to mark his promising debut.
By the time the game ended, John could have probably had a hat-trick after firing wide and losing control of the ball in equally threatening positions.
As Barnsley chased the game, so Blues began to look more and more dangerous on the counter-attack, especially with Stan Lazaridis (who had replaced the once again ineffective Tommy Mooney) breaking forward at pace.
He was guilty of wasting one opportunity however, when he failed to pass to Devlin in a three-on-one break which also included the impressive Darren Carter who played another 90 minutes in a box-to-box role - which considering he played 45 minutes for England Under 19's just 40 hours earlier was even more credit-worthy.
All in all it was a good day's work for Blues who knew it would be tough against Steve Parkin's resurgent Barnsley.
The performance, although improved, was far from good however, especially in the first half, and the defending was suspect throughout.
More promising though were the performances of John and Devlin - who worked tirelessly both defensively and offensively throughout - and also of Carter, who again impressed.
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