The traffic was all against them but Barnsley took more from this draw - a replay where they will start favourites.
They managed just one real shot on target and one corner, but always drew players behind the ball to frustrate their former manager Danny Wilson and his City squad.
The pattern hardly varied with the Robins doing all the attacking but then so nearly falling to the one shot against them, a deflected effort by substitute Alex Neil which was booted off the line by Brian Tinnion.
Their only other scoring chance was a scramble near the line when City defender Louis Carey injured himself as he tackled Chris Lumsdon.
For the rest of the game it was all the home side, as they created a dozen attempts on goal and won 14 fruitless corners.
With top scorer Dean Gorre injured and Jacob Burns suspended Barnsley had only Jonathan Walters up front against City's three-strong back-line and their ambitions were strictly limited.
Kevin Betsy gave Walters support with a lively display but the Tykes never looked like creating a shot on target in the opening half.
A fortnight earlier City had claimed an injury-time league win over the Yorkshire side and had carried one important lesson with them from that win.
They set out to get as many balls as they could under Sasa Ilic's bar and the Barnsley keeper duly obliged by twice dropping them.
The first came on 25 minutes when, under pressure from Lee Peacock, he lost Luke Wilkshire's in-swinging corner.
Simon Clist, starting for the first time this season, poked the ball towards the line from three yards but saw it hacked away.
The second dropped ball was similarly heaved away and Barnsley also survived a Wilkshire free kick which slammed onto the post.
Barnsley looked unlikely to survive but Ilic began to find his form and after fisting away a Lee Miller shot in the first half he did well to pull down a volley from Clist.
He was often tested on the near post from set pieces by Wilkshire, the tie's outstanding player, but City's failure to ram home the chances they made saw them taken to a replay on Tuesday week.