Tom Bradshaw’s 15th minute goal has given Barnsley a 1-0 half-time lead over the Blues at half-time at Oakwell.
Midfielders Flynn Downes and Tristan Nydam kept their places in the Town midfield, but Grant Ward and defender Tommy Smith both missed out.
Ward picked up a kick to the calf in last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Birmingham, while Smith missed Tuesday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup win at Luton with a sore back but it’s believed he may have suffered a hamstring injury in training.
The New Zealand international’s absence saw Jonas Knudsen continue as the left-sided centre-half in the back three with skipper Luke Chambers in the middle and Jordan Spence on the right. Dominic Iorfa and Myles Kenlock were the wing-backs with Bartosz Bialkowski in goal.
Downes, who was making his first league start, was alongside Cole Skuse in the deeper midfield roles with Nydam, making his league debut having made his senior bow on Tuesday, was ahead of them and behind front pair Joe Garner and Freddie Sears.
David McGoldrick, who scored twice at Kenilworth Road, Bersant Celina, Martyn Waghorn and young defender Luke Woolfenden were among the subs.
Barnsley included new Harvey Barnes, who signed on loan from Leicester yesterday and who Town were also believed to be eyeing, among their substitutes.
The Blues won an early corner but it was the home side who created the game’s first opening. Knudsen cut out a cross from the right but only found George Moncur, whose shot was spilled by one-time Tykes loanee Bartosz Bialkowski. The loose ball reached Tom Bradshaw but he could only head into Bialkowski’s arms.
Barnsley threatened again in the fifth minute, Bialkowski bundling a Bradshaw wide to his left and a miscommunication between the Town keeper and Knudsen allowing it to go out for a corner.
The Tykes kept up the pressure from the flag-kick with a number of Town defenders blocking efforts from home players before Bialkowski eventually held on to a cross.
But Town gradually began to make some headway and in the 10th minute Sears escaped down the right and, following good work from Spence and Iorfa, crossed towards Garner, whose flicked header was blocked at point-blank by a defender.
On 13 Barnsley had another chance from a corner, this time on their left, skipper Angus MacDonald eventually heading over.
Town created an opportunity of their own a minute later. After Nydam had sent Sears away on the left with an excellent looping pass, Kenlock crossed towards Garner but just in front of the striker and team-mates arriving at the far post.
The Blues had looked to be getting more into the game but on the quarter hour the Tykes took the lead.
After Town, who had looked shaky at the back throughout the early stages, had failed to clear the initial attack, Ryan Hedges’s overhead kick looped to Bradshaw at the far post, from where he nodded past Bialkowski.
The home side continued the pressure having gone in front and weren’t far from doubling their lead in the 22nd when Adam Hammill’s low shot following a corner was blocked just in front of the line by Garner.
Soon after, Iorfa and Sears exchanged passes on the Town right but the on-loan Wolves man was crowded out as he looked to shoot.
On 25 Iorfa, proving to be a big threat down the right, cut the ball back to Sears from the right byline but a defender put the ball behind ahead of Sears.
As the game passed the half hour mark the Blues were starting to look more confident, playing more patient football than earlier, but without having forced Tykes keeper Adam Davies into a save.
In the 38th minute Kenlock blazed well over after a corner from the right had been cleared to him 30 yards out.
There was a scare for the Blues a minute later when and Bialkowski came and failed to punch a cross from the right and Iorfa headed behind ahead of a Barnsley striker.
On 42 Moncur hit the wall after a freekick on the edge of the area had been played to him. Town immediately broke through Garner and Sears. After Iorfa had been dispossessed as he cut in from the left inside the box, Nydam crossed and found Garner, who failed to find a team-mate with a pass when he should have shot.
The Blues kept the Tykes pinned back inside their half for the following couple of minutes, but despite sending a number of balls across the box were unable to create a serious opportunity.
Barnsley will feel they should have increased their lead in the final scheduled minute of the half after they broke behind the Blues’ backline, who again failed to clear their lines. Bialkowski saved first from Moncur, then from Hedges’s follow-up.
Soon after referee Geoff Eltringham ended an entertaining and open first half with the Tykes deserving their lead on the balance of the game and chances created.
Indeed, they may well have felt they should have been further in front with Bialkowski having made a number of impressive saves, in addition to Garner’s clearance from in front of the line.
Barnsley had always looked the more dangerous side with the Blues never looking entirely sure of themselves at the back.
Going forward, Town had had some decent spells but so far without being able to turn them into openings. The Blues switched new signing Waghorn and McGoldrick for Nydam and Kenlock ahead of the second half with the changes little surprise.
Barnsley: Davies, McCarthy, MacDonald (c), Jackson, Pearson, J Williams, Moncur, Potts, Hammill, Bradshaw, Hedges. Subs: Townsend, Pinnock, Payne, Mowatt, Bird, Barnes. Ugbo.
Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Kenlock (McGoldrick 46), Skuse, Downes, Nydam (Nydam 46), Sears, Garner. Subs: Gerken, Woolfenden, McDonnell, Rowe, Celina, McGoldrick. Referee: Geoff Eltringham (County Durham).