City's Under 18's were made to pay for lacking the killer touch as, despite all the possession and territory, they failed to find the net and subsequently lost the game.
The Potters fielded a youthful side, featuring just two second years, and also had a trialist, who used to play for Chelsea, up front.
It was the trialist who nearly created the first opportunity when, on ten minutes, he pressured the away defence, forcing a rushed clearance, with the ball falling to winger Jack Harrison. The pacey wideman headed for the area but saw his effort flash across goal and skim the post on its way out for a goal kick.
The Tykes showed their clinical side two minutes later when, after a powerful drive was parried out by Parton, McDonald was caught on the ball and the visitors midfielder lashed the ball into the net, leaving the City keeper with no chance.
After Hedley lashed over from 35 yards City nearly equalised when a mass scramble saw Urwin, Lucas and Harrison all have shots blocked after the keeper had come and failed to claim a corner.
Left back Laton Wint showed promising signs of his potential when he dribbled past four Barnsley players before seeing the chance to finish off his solo run with a shot at goal taken away by a great last ditch tackle from the final defender.
City were denied a penalty just second after the restart when a defensive mistake let in the Potters trialist. He raced onto the bouncing ball, flicked it over the keeper, but was the brought down by the Tykes stopper. The ball slowly bobbled wide with the striker in a heap on the floor, wondering how the referee had not seen a foul.
After a couple of substitutions, with the trialist being replaced by Warwick Alexander and centre back McDonald replaced by Matt Cohen after being forced off with an injury, target man Alexander got involved straight away and after a quick one-two with Harrison he tested the keeper from 25 yards.
City continued to huff and puff but were struggling to create clear cut opportunities with just a long range free kick from Lucas testing the keeper in the final stages whilst Barnsley almost doubled their advantage in added time when a quick break saw a cross flicked into the side netting by the visitors striker.
Under 18's(4-5-1): Parton; Hedley, Sinclair, McDonald(Cohen 58), Wint; Urwin, Lucas, Clarkson, Jackson(Mitchell 76), Harrison; Trialist(Alexander 70)