Dave Bassett's Barnsley increased the pressure on their fellow promotion hopefuls with a hard-fought victory.

With four former Palace regulars in their starting line-up, the visitors certainly did not lack inside knowledge of the Selhurst Park side.

Former Eagles Bruce Dyer and Neal Shipperley were a constant threat but it was Darren Barnard who was to cause them major headaches.

The former Chelsea defender has been constantly linked with top Premiership sides in England and Scotland since he arrived at Oakwell and he proved his value with a dominant performance.

With the Palace defence desperately missing the suspended Dean Austin and Fan Zhiyi, it was Barnard's precision through ball that split the Eagles resistance and allowed Dyer to power home the opener after just 10 minutes.

Within three minutes the Tykes had further increased their lead as John Curtis was blatantly pushed inside the area by Simon Rodger and Barnard expertly converted the penalty.

Despite their lofty league position and impressive scoring record, Barnsley's defence has been notoriously leaky this season but against his former team-mates it was Tykes' keeper Kevin Miller who emerged as the true hero.

Miller has never been forgiven for taking strike action at the beginning of the season which forced the cash-strapped Londoners to offload him to Barnsley at a cut-price £300,000.

Booed and barracked from the moment he ran on the field, Miller frustrated his tormentors with a brilliantly display of shot-stopping which included a second half penalty save.

Matthias Svensson saw two gilt-edged opportunities beaten clear by Miller whilst Hayden Mullins' rasping close-range strike was brilliantly saved during injury time.

The return of Clinton Morrison, sidelined for three months with a dislocated shoulder, seemed to inspire Palace after the break.

Morrison was a rumoured target of Leicester's Martin O'Neill before his lengthy injury break and showed what manager Steve Coppell has so desperately missed in recent months.

Mullins and Svennson both saw further strikes denied by Miller whilst Morrison's first effort clattered into the side netting.

However, Miller had not finished his keeping heroics. After a penalty area scramble, Svensson's goal-bound drive was handled by David Tuttle with a spot-kick the result.

Former Palace favourite Tuttle was instantly dismissed but Svensson's well-struck penalty was seemingly predictably saved by the inspired Miller.

Miller athletically denied Morrison's rasping drive moments later and when McKenzie did beat the visitors' keeper an untimely linesman flag spoiled the celebrations.

The introduction of Barnsley substitute Geoff Thomas meant exactly half of the visitors' side was made up from former Palace employees.

But despite their numerical advantage Palace never looked like breaching a watertight Barnsley defence marshalled by a keeper with a point to prove.

Teams:

Crystal Palace: Digby, Phelan, Woozley, Linighan, Smith, Rodger, Mullins, Fullarton (Morrison 59), Carlisle (Foster 80), McKenzie, Svensson (Martin 72).

Subs Not Used: Frampton, Mautone.

Booked: Phelan.

Barnsley: Miller, Barker, Tuttle, Morgan, Curtis, Barnard (Thomas 85), Jackson, Van Der Laan, Eaden, Shipperley (Sheron 88), Dyer (McClare 63).

Subs Not Used: Hignett, Bullock.

Sent Off: Tuttle (61).

Goals: Dyer 12, Barnard 15 pen.

Att: 14,225

Ref: M Dean (Eastham).