Barnsley produced a totally dominant performance in a 3-0 win at Crawley Town on Saturday.

The Reds raced into a 3-0 lead at half-time with Donovan Pines’ opener followed by a brace by Adam Phillips.

The visitors were by far the better team and could have scored several more goals while their hosts did not have a shot on target until the 90th minute.

Barnsley are now seventh in the early league table with seven points from four games.

Darrell Clarke made four changes from the previous league game.

Coming into the side were Kyran Lofthouse – who played up front on his full league debut – Pines, Corey O’Keeffe and Matty Craig. They replaced Marc Roberts and Georgie Gent, who were benched, Sam Cosgrove, who is still out injured, and Conor Hourihane.

Deadline day signings Davis Keillor-Dunn and Stephen Humphries were not signed in time to play.

Barnsley were totally dominant in the first quarter of the game, constantly robbing the ball off the hosts who tried to play out from the back but could not cope with Reds’ press, while the visitors bullied the Sussex club at set pieces.

Max Watters, at his former club, should have scored in the first minute when he went clean through on goal after a burst of pace but hit the base of the left post.

Watters then had to come off on nine minutes with a foot injury, replaced by Aiden Marsh whose 20-yard shot was pushed around the bottom right corner by Jojo Wollacott.

Pines headed in the opener with a fine aerial finish from a left-wing O’Keeffe corner which he met at the back post.

Phillips almost added another seconds later but his 15-yard shot after meeting a low right-wing cross hit the base of the left post.

Phillips eventually made it 2-0 when he swapped passes with Luca Connell and went clean through to find the bottom corner.

The game calmed down slightly after that but Pines headed over another O’Keeffe corner from the left on 40 minutes.

The third goal arrived in first half injury-time, as a defender’s pass was intercepted by Phillips who jinked past a couple of tackles then was taken out in the box by Joy Mukena. He converted the penalty himself.

In the second half, Connell saw a dipping long-range effort tipped out of the top left corner by Wollacott then, seconds later, Mael de Gevigney headed just over from an O’Keeffe corner.

Toby Mullarkey then headed wide from a free-kick which was Crawley’s first effort on goal in the 59th minute.

Lofthouse then ran 70 yards to go through on goal after Crawley lost the ball following their corner, but Wollacott saved one-on-one. Marsh was put through by Craig on another counter-attack but his weak effort from outside the box, under pressure from a defender, was easily saved.

Jay Williams shot well off-target for the hosts late on from distance, as did Harry Forster. Panutche Camara had their first effort on target in the 90th minute, a weak shot from the edge of the box which Slonina easily caught.

Barnsley (3-5-2): Slonina; de Gevigney, Pines (Roberts 80mins), Earl; Cotter, Phillips, Craig, Connell, O’Keeffe; Lofthouse (Yoganathan 69), Watters (Marsh 9).

Subs: Killip, Russell, Roberts, Gent, Nwakali.

Yellow cards: Lofthouse, Connell, Pines.

Goals: Pines 12, Phillips 23, 45+2 (pen).

Crawley (3-4-2-1): Wollacott, Mullarky, Mukena, Flint; Kelly, Williams, Bragg (Swan HT), Anderson (Forster HT); Camara, Darcy, Hepburn-Murphy (Adeyemo 74).

Subs: Beech, Barker, Quitirna,, Khaleel.

Yellow cards: Camara, Hepburn-Murphy.