Mediocre, lacklustre, lazy, sub-standard and that's putting it mildly.
This is a team lacking in confidence, attacking prowess and ideas. Only Jacob Burns and Michael Chopra could come away from this match with anything like their heads held high and Tom Williams and Michael Boulding should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
Bournemouth were a very poor team who would have been delighted to earn a point, but Barnsley's generosity this season has been limitless and so it proved again at a freezing Oakwell.
A sign of things to come came in the form of the PA system failing to work which meant there was no music or team lineups revealed and this set the tone for the rest of a morbid game.
Barnsley did most of the early running with Bournemouth content to soak up the pressure though pressure is hardly the word to use as Barnsleys link up play ran into a brick wall whenever they reached the edge of the Bournemouth area.
The Reds did have the first chance on eight minutes when Chopra's strike was brilliantly parried by keeper Neil Moss Boulding chased to keep the ball in before playing it across to a clearly offside Jacob Burns who converted. Before he had chance to wheel away he noticed the flag and the groans rang around Oakwell.
Barnsley continued to press and Burns corner on 11 mins saw Carbon thump in a header that Moss again superbly turned away.
Bournemouth's first chance came after 16minutes when Kay shouted for Carbon to leave the ball for him before inexplicably giving it straight to the burly Fletcher who ran on and proceeded to sky the ball into the North Stand. Yes the game really was that bad!
The Reds really should have taken the lead 2 minutes before half time as Shuker freed Chopra and as Moss came flying out the on-loan hitman squared the ball to an unmarked Boulding but with a completely free net to aim at he proceeded to lift it over.
The second half was an extremely tedious affair with Bournemouth enjoying the lions share of possession without really threatening. That was until the 78th minute when Kay brought down Stock and sent Barnsleys play-off hopes down with him. Stock quickly picked himself up to play the ball into the feet of Gareth O'Connor and with the Reds defence asleep he proceeded to lash the ball under Turnbull to send what looked about 50 Bournemouth fans wild.
That was game over. Kay lifted the ball over in the 89th minute as Barnsley staged one last attack but as the final whistle went the Barnsley fans who hadn't yet left roundly booed the players and Hart off as all the pre-season expectation finally fully evaporated on a cold harsh February afternoon.
Harts days seem to be numbered with the fact that Barnsley have failed to keep a manager for a full season for 5 years surely being the only reason chairman Gordon Shepherd is keeping him at the helm I personally can't think of any other reason. Neither can I think of a reason why Tom Williams is included week after week, answers on a postcard to that one!