Half-time subs David McGoldrick and Martyn Waghorn scored the goals which saw Town come from a goal behind to win 2-1 against Barnsley at Oakwell. Tom Bradshaw put the Tykes in front in the 15th minute but after a reshuffle at the break, McGoldrick volleyed home an equaliser on 53 and debutant Waghorn sealed the three points in the 70th minute as Town recorded three wins in their opening three games of a season for the first time since 2002/03.
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.
McGoldrick, who scored twice at Kenilworth Road, Bersant Celina, 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 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. Moncur was played in on goal but Bialkowski saved down to his left. Town were still unable to end the danger and Hedges broke into the box on the left before unleashing a powerful strike which Bialkowski again did well to keep out.
After Bradshaw had shot wide from an angle on the left, 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 of possession but so far without being able to turn them into openings.
The Blues swapped new signing Waghorn and McGoldrick for Nydam and Kenlock ahead of the second half with the changes little surprise.
Town moved to 4-4-2 with Waghorn, who was making his Blues league debut, and Sears on the right and left of midfield respectively.
Town immediately began to look more of a danger going forward. Iorfa crossed from the right and Waghorn’s shot was blocked. On 47 Adam Jackson was booked for a foul on Garner on the left.
A minute later Garner sent McGoldrick scampering his way through a number of Barnsley defenders but the Town number 10 allowed Davies to see just too much of the ball as he looked to beat the keeper, who blocked.
Town were looking far more likely scorers than they had in the first half and, after Sears had shot against a defender and Iorfa had been booked for a foul, the Blues got back on terms in the 53rd minute.
Knudsen wafted over a cross to the far post from the left and McGoldrick volleyed a powerful shot past Davies to claim his third goal in two games right in front of the travelling Blue Army.
After Jackson’s overhead kick had flown narrowly wide of the Town goal, Barnsley switched goalscorer Bradshaw for on-loan Chelsea youngster Ike Ugbo on 57 before Garner and MacDonald were both spoken to by the referee following the latest instalment in an ongoing spat.
The pair clashed again in the 66th minute, Garner remonstrating with the referee after being caught late and from behind not far outside the area by the Tykes captain, who was lucky not to see a card. McGoldrick blazed the freekick well over.
Town had been the better side since the break with Barnsley rarely creating an opening. And on 70 they grabbed the lead their second half display deserved.
McGoldrick flicked on to Garner, who spotted Waghorn making a run in behind and played the ball into his fellow former Rangers man, who took it inside a defender before hitting a low left-footed shot past the motionless Davies and into the corner of the net.
Downes made way for Adam McDonnell in the 77th minute, the Blues youngster having undergone treatment on a couple of occasions during the second half. McDonnell, a sub at Luton in midweek, was making his second league appearance for the Blues, the first having been on the final day of 2016/17 at Derby.
Hammill curled a freekick into Bialkowski’s arms, before Barnsley switched Hedges for Stefan Payne and then soon after debutant Barnes for Hammill.
The Tykes began to put the Blues, who suddenly seemed unable to keep hold of the ball, under more pressure as the game moved into its final 10 minutes.
Chambers blocked a shot from the right, then Bialkowski saved well from Barnes after the resultant corner had reached the on-loan Fox at the back of the box.
But Town, with their backline looking far more organised than it had in the first half with skipper Chambers and Spence resolute at its heart, held on to secure their second Championship win of the season, in addition to Tuesday’s Carabao Cup victory at Luton. They had come from behind for the first time since the 3-2 victory at Wigan in December.
While Barnsley fans will believe they deserved something from the game having been the better side before the break. But having kept the score to 1-0 - to a great extent due to keeper Bialkowski - and changed things around at the break, the second half performance was worthy of the three points.
The win sees the Blues, who travel to Millwall on Tuesday, to fourth position in the early season Championship table - behind Cardiff and Wolves on goal difference and Nottingham Forest on goals scored - after an excellent first eight days of their campaign.
Barnsley: Davies, McCarthy, MacDonald (c), Jackson, Pearson, J Williams, Moncur, Potts, Hammill (Barnes 80), Bradshaw (Ugbo 57), Hedges (Payne 78). Unused: Townsend, Pinnock, Payne, Mowatt, Bird.
Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Kenlock (McGoldrick 46), Skuse, Downes (McDonnell 77), Nydam (Nydam 46), Sears, Garner. Unused: Gerken, Woolfenden, Rowe, Celina. Referee: Geoff Eltringham (County Durham). Att: 12,009 (Town: 870).