The best chance fell to Wednesday though Steve MacLean somehow hit the post from point blank range after 24minutes.
Minutes before three crunching tackles from Neil Austin who deservedly won man of the match saw a mass brawl break out in front of the East Stand and chants of DeeDaa and Dingle rang round the stadium.
That was about it as the first half was concerned. Things were really that bad.
Proceedings did lighten up slightly in the second half with Barnsley enjoying the lionshare of possesion and Michael Boulding got through only to shoot at the legs of David Lucas. As all Reds fans know Boulding needs around three chances to score. That was the only one he was got.
The Reds really should have broken the deadlock though when Shuker played the ball through the defence to the waiting Chopra on the 6 yard line and as Wednesday froze looking for an offside Chopra somehow knocked the ball wide.
That was it for the Reds as Wednesday made a last assualt on goal. Sub Lee Peacock had a goal disallowed for offside though early signs were that he was just in line with the defence.
Barnsley survivied in the end to become the first team the owls have drawn a blank against since the arrival of Paul Sturrock and in turn increased their unbeaten run to 13.
The worrying statistic though is that the Reds have now only won one of their last 9 as once again failure to kill off games has seen their season all but end by the beginning of February.