Luton Town 2-1 Barnsley: Hatters down struggling Tykes to increase play-off hopes
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Elijah Adebayo's successful penalty kick moved Luton's top scorer on to 12 goals for the season
Bottom-of-the-table Barnsley's winless run extended to 13 league games as Luton Town moved closer to the Championship play-off places after a 2-1 win.
Barnsley defended poorly from a corner and Allan Campbell just forced the ball over the line from close range to give Luton a scrappy lead.
The Tykes went into the break level thanks to Carlton Morris' well-taken equaliser, but went behind again when Elijah Adebayo converted from the penalty spot after an hour.
Luton could have extended their lead as Barnsley began to wilt - Adebayo and Campbell both missed good chances as the half wore on.
Barnsley are now four points adrift at the bottom of the table after Derby's win over Hull City and are still eight points from safety.
They have won only once since the middle of August and manager Poya Asbaghi is winless in his 11 league games in charge, having gained just three points in that time.
Luton are outside the play-off places on goal difference having moved on to 45 points although all the sides around them have yet to play this week.
Barnsley started well and should have gone ahead in the opening minute when Watford loanee Domingos Quina was put through by Callum Styles, but the Portuguese midfielder tried to round James Shea and fired over from a narrow angle.
Styles curled an effort just wide 15 minutes later before Luton started to gain control as Harry Cornick had a goal disallowed for offside and saw a header cleared from a well-worked corner.
But Barnsley clawed their way back into it as Morris converted the best bit of play of the half as he broke into the area, jinked past Gabriel Osho and deftly dinked the ball over a diving Shea.
Cornick hit the side netting from an acute angle 10 minutes into the second period after good work by Amari'i Bell to get to the byeline.
But they did not have to wait much longer to take the lead - Barnsley keeper Bradley Collins brought down substitute Fred Onyedinma and Adebayo smashed his spot-kick into the top corner.
The second goal seemed to kill Barnsley as Luton upped the tempo - Adebayo should have made it 3-1 from close range but failed to get a good contact on an excellent cross from Cornick, while Campbell just failed to get above an Onyedinma cross as he headed over at the far post.
Barnsley almost got an equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time, but Styles flicked a header wide across the face of goal from Devante Cole's cross.
Luton Town manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"These are a difficult side to play against because they overload the midfield so they don't play with a front man and they can cause you little bits of problems, it's difficult to get a real press on, it's difficult to get a load of momentum.
"First half we were a little bit slow, second half we were much, much better, we limited them to very, very little.
"But a year ago or two seasons ago we would have lost that game, and we haven't beaten them here, so to do that in a scrappy game shows we can dig them out as well."
Barnsley head coach Poya Asbaghi told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"First half from our part was good, I thought we were the better team, I think we played good football in the first half creating chances.
"Then it's an ongoing theme, the game is open in the second half and we do these mistakes giving away goals, and it's been too many of them, and we end up being down in the game, which is difficult.
"Teams in the Championship are really good at killing time when they are in the lead so what happens after that is difficult.
"For us it's just unfortunate always that we put ourselves in these situations where we have to chase being down all the time."