Coventry City 1-0 Barnsley: Dominic Hyam's late winner sinks struggling Tykes
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Dom Hyam's winner was his second goal in three games for Coventry, having also scored in the 3-2 win at Reading
Dominic Hyam's stoppage-time winner gave Coventry City a deserved win over basement side Barnsley.
Hyam collected a rebound on the edge of the box and smashed a shot into the bottom corner in the third of nine additional minutes.
Goalkeeper Brad Collins had been the Tykes' saviour up to that point with a string of saves, including two from Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres in the opening four minutes.
The recalled Martyn Waghorn also sent a first-time shot inches wide as the hosts looked set to be frustrated until Hyam's late intervention.
Without a win away from home all season, Barnsley looked the perfect opponents for City to improve their stuttering home form in their first match at the Coventry Building Society Arena since the end of the long-running row over its sale.
Barnsley went into the match buoyed by a first win in 13 games against QPR, but were quickly on the back foot and only Collins stood between them and a heavier defeat.
After frustrating Gyokeres, the Tykes keeper was again forced into action before the break from Callum O'Hare's drilled shot and Ian Maatsen's free-kick, and then on the hour he kept out Ben Sheaf's goalbound effort.
Waghorn, O'Hare and Jamie Allen all had shots blocked in a frantic spell, and it seemed Barnsley had weathered the storm to earn an unlikely point until Hyam popped up with the winner.
Coventry, who have not lost at home to the Tykes since 1923, moved up to 10th, three points off the top six, while Barnsley's 18th defeat in 23 matches leaves them bottom and nine points adrift of safety.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins told BBC CWR:
"They made the game the way that it was, but the goal from Dominic was a really good finish and something we needed. You could see the relief.
"But for a little bit of tiredness or lack of quality at times we could have hurt them a lot more and put them to the sword a lot earlier.
"I'm grateful for the three points. The performance was good - there were some really good performances and better performances from players, so you put the three points in your back pocket and move on."
Barnsley head coach Poya Asbaghi told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"It is always the worst feeling to lose in overtime, it's a tough one to take.
"Even if we are not creating the chances I wanted us to create, we defended really well and didn't concede many chances against a good team at home.
"Taking a point from here with a good defensive performance I would have taken that all the days in the week, but unfortunately for us we could not keep it until the end."