Barnsley U23s suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat at home to Charlton Athletic on Friday afternoon.
The young Reds, looking to bounce back from Monday’s 2-0 loss at Cardiff City, were put to the sword by the visitors, who scored through Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu, Alfie Doughty, Wilberforce Ocran and Joe Cummings.
Martin Devaney made three changes to the side that travelled to Wales, with Jordan Williams, Cameron Simpson and Louis Walsh coming in for Jared Bird, Jacob Brown and the suspended Louis Wardle.
Both sides started brightly on a dull day in South Yorkshire, with Jordan Barnett coming closest in the opening exchanges as his long-range effort whistled over the crossbar.
But Charlton were lively on the counter-attack and broke with pace to open the scoring as Doughty burst clear down the left flank and pulled the ball back for Sarpong-Wiredu, who coolly converted into the bottom corner to give the Addicks a 25th minute lead.
The Reds looked to hit back and came close to finding an equaliser when Amir Berkovits weaved his way into the area and found Tai-Reece Chisholm through a forest of legs, but the young midfielder was dispossessed before he could get a shot away.
Cameron Simpson was the main outlet for Barnsley as he continuously penetrated the visiting backline with terrific runs from left-back, but, unfortunately for the hosts, there was no red shirt on the end of his impeccable crosses.
However, after the interval, Charlton showed their superiority and doubled their advantage when Doughty cut in from the left and curled a precise shot into the far corner.
The Addicks had their third six minutes later when ex-Red Ocran was first to react after Jake Greatorex had made a fine save to deny Sarpong-Wiredu, with the young striker following up to slam home from inside the six-yard box.
Barnsley continued to look for a way back into the game, but were caught on the counter-attack again as Jordan Zemura – well-forward from left-back – rattled the crossbar from the edge of the area.
Gerry McDonagh almost scored a late consolation for the Reds, but his shot was well blocked by Cummings as the visitors fought tooth and nail for their clean sheet.
The misery was compounded three minutes into stoppage time as Cummings was left unmarked at the far post to power home a header and send the Addicks back to south-east London with all three points.
REDS XI: Greatorex, Williams, Fielding, Smith (c), Simpson, Walsh (Trialist, 58), Otim, Barnett (Greenfield, 70), Berkovits, Chisholm (Feeney, 63), McDonagh
Not used: Kendrick, Trialist
CHARLTON XI: Maynard-Brewer, Yao (c), Zemura, Dempsey, Cummings, Stevenson, Sarpong-Wiredu, Quitirna, Carey, Ocran, Doughty
Subs: Anderson, Harvey, Junior, Birch, Blumberg
