Barnsley reached the second round of the FA Cup with a 3-1 win at League Two leaders Port Vale on Saturday afternoon.

Marc Roberts opened the scoring but Vale levelled before the break then before Davis Keillor-Dunn struck midway through the second period and Adam Phillips added a penalty.

Barnsley produced another decent performance, continuing their improvement in recent weeks having collected seven points from their last three league games.

There was one change from the league win at Shrewsbury week before as Josh Earl returned from suspension in place of the benched Donovan Pines. Adam Phillips was on the nine-man bench after injury.

Barnsley started brightly with Davis Keillor-Dunn’s low effort from the edge of the box turned wide by Connor Ripley then, from the following corner, the same player shot wide of the bottom right corner from just inside the box.

The Reds took the lead when Corey O’Keeffe’s free-kick on the left was whipped in dangerously and Roberts headed in from close range, to cap his 100th Barnsley game with a goal.

Vale responded well to the goal. Ronan Curtis saw a low 25-yard free-kick pushed away by Ben Killip before the same player headed over from cross range under pressure from Roberts after meeting a left-wing Conor Grant cross.

Curtis levelled on 30 minutes when, after a cross from the left appeared to be played straight to him by Earl, he brought it down, skipped around a challenge and supplied a close-range finish.

Keillor-Dunn was gifted the ball by goalkeeper Ripley and went clean through but hesitated in the box and his shot was blocked by a defender then Watters’ chipped follow-up was caught by Ripley.

Minutes into the second half, Ruari Paton’s 22-yard free-kick was brilliantly saved by Killip springing to his left to five full-length and tip it away.

Phillips came on for Max Watters after 58 minutes and Barnsley changed from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2.

Barnsley retook the lead with an excellent team goal. They worked the ball from left to right very crisply before Phillips played in O’Keeffe on the right of the box and his low cross was deftly turned into the bottom left corner by Keillor-Dunn on his 27th birthday.

Jon Russell struck the bar with a dipping effort from outside the box then, at the other end, Rico Richards shot well over from a similar distance.

Barnsley were then awarded a penalty as, from a Phillips cross, Humphrys was clearly tripped by Jesse Debrah. Phillips found the bottom right corner from the spot.

Ripley gifted Connell the ball in injury-time and he squared to Humphrys who hesitated then saw his shot blocked.

Barnsley (3-4-3): Killip; de Gevigney, Roberts, Earl; O’Keeffe, Connell, Russell, Gent; Humphrys, Watters (Phillips 58), Keillor-Dunn.

Unused: Slonina, Pines, Jalo, Lofthouse, Craig, McCarthy, Yoganathan, Nwakali.

Yellow cards: Connell.

Goals: Roberts 17, Keillor-Dunn 64, Phillips 83 (pen).

Port Vale (3-4-2-1): Ripley; Debrah, Heneghan, Hall; Cover, Sang, Lowe, Grant (Shorrock 62); Benicio (Richards 62), Curtis (Hackford 72); Paton (Stockley 72).

Unused: Amos, Smith, Chislett, Tolaj, Edwards.

Yellow cards: Cover, Debrah.

Goals: Curtis 30.