Difficult night for Barnsley who kicked off their Papa John's Trophy involvement with a limp performance against fellow League One outfit Lincoln City.

A quickfire first half double for the Imps saw the visitors to a comfortable victory in the opening group fixture of this season's Papa John's Trophy. 

The Reds made a raft of changes for this clash, with none of the starting XI from Saturday's trip to Ipswich Town being used in this one. But the home side did start quite brightly, worrying the Lincoln backline in the opening stages without really creating an opportunity of note. 

After 15 minutes and in their first real forat forward, Lincoln took the lead when a Charles Vernam cross from the right was powered home by the in-form Teddy Bishop, getting ahead of his defender to fire home from six yards out. 

Just two minutes later, the Imps doubled that lead when captain for the evening, Jack Walton miscued a kicked clearance which Bishop guided home from all of 30 yards, into the empty net. 

The size of the task only increased when James Norwood was giving his marching orders after a clash with Jay Benn by the dugouts. 

Walton did deny the away side a third goal when tipping over a rasping drive from Vernam, but for the most part in the latter stages of the first half, Lincoln were happy to retain possession against the 10-men Reds. 

HALF-TIME: Barnsley 0-2 Lincoln City

There was very little action to note in the second half, but for a glut of substitutions. First team debuts for all of Harrison Nejman, Hayden Pickard and Danny Benson helped to lift the atmosphere, as well as the late introduction of Fabio Jalo, but other than a Matty Wolfe effort that he blazed well wide when well-placed inside the area, the visitors weren't troubled. 

If it wasn't for the reactions of Walton, who again made impressive saves to thwart, we could have been looking at an heavier scoreline. 

There was a late run from the always-lively Jalo, as the 16-year-old danced in between defenders before being dumped to the ground with a cynical challenge. But a frustrating evening was rounded off when Jovon Makama tapped in a low cross with almost the last kick of the game. 

FULL-TIME: Barnsley 0-3 Lincoln City

Walton, Hondermarck, Moon, Cundy, McCarthy, Oduor, Wolfe, Kane, Marsh, Tedic, Norwood.

Unused: Collins, Lancaster.