A DISASTROUS start to the second half ensured Barnsley left Stevenage empty-handed following a 3-0 thrashing in League One.
Goals from Elliot List and Carl Piergianni within five minutes of each other before List doubled his tally in the last minute saw the Reds defeated away from home.
Head coach Darrell Clarke named an unchanged side from Barnsley’s 2-1 win at home to Bristol Rovers last weekend.
Both Fabio Jalo and Max Watters returned from injury for their place on the bench.
The Reds, donning their pink strip, started the game the stronger.
Neat play inside five minutes almost saw Josh Earl open the scoring but his effort was well saved by the Stevenage ‘keeper.
Barnsley continued to control the game well and, bar a few contentious hand ball decisions against them, had the majority of the ball in the opening 15 minutes.
The Boro cranked up the pressure on 20 minutes, putting the Reds’ defence on the back foot.
Long balls forward isolated defender Donovan Pines but he did well on a number of occasions to keep Jamie Reid at bay.
The best chance of the opening half an hour came for the Reds through Barry Cotter.
A whipped free kick from captain Luca Connell eventually found Cotter whose touch found him space on the edge of the box.
But his effort was just wide of the Stevenage goal.
An injured Pines, after being hit by a flailing arm from a Stevenage attacker, was forced to return to the pitch with a bandage around his head.
But it was his centre back partner Marc Roberts who came the closest to opening the scoring in the first half.
He unfortunately saw his header go straight into the gloves of the Boro keeper.
Then Sam Cosgrove’s header was cleared off the line in additional time.
Pines came off at half time for the second game in a row, being replaced by Max Watters up top.
Cotter was also taken off with Corey O’Keeffe taking his place.
A Slonina mistake almost gifted Reid the opening goal in the 52nd minute.
He slipped when clearing the ball but thankfully Reid’s effort was deflected over the bar.
Substitute Elliot List did score the opening less than a minute later.
The ball rebounded to the forward who was unmarked in the penalty area and he made no mistake, firing it past Slonina to make it 1-0.
It was almost two for the hosts just minutes later.
Reid cut the ball back inside in the box and unleashed a powerful effort towards Slonina but it was deflected over for a corner.
Stevenage did double their lead from that corner.
Carl Piergianni headed in unmarked from six yards out to make it 2-0.
Jalo and Humphrys were brought off the bench and the former almost made an instant impact, cutting inside from the right before seeing his effort cleared.
The young Portuguese forward was the best player on the pitch after coming off the break and had a number of great chances to pull one back.
Barnsley's misery was compiled in the 89th minute as List made it 3-0, firing into an empty goal at the back post.
That's how it ended as the Reds lost their first away league game of the campaign.
