PLAYED worse and won. But facts are facts; it's 59 years since Barnsley last won at QPR. None in 20.
Except this time they did play well, deserved to bring something home.
They were well worth a 1-0 lead before the roof fell in and Fitz Hall scored two and double quick in the first half.
Barnsley even threw in a penalty and went down to 10 in the second half. QPR made nothing of either and generally needed all the help they could get.
As for Barnsley, well, apologies now to Iain Hume. Likewise Brian Howard. Can't score and ready to pack up and leave was pre-season word.
Incorrect by a million miles.
Hume, with nil goals on his pre-season Barnsley previous, had five minutes, one chance and put Barnsley in front.
Side foot, calm head, no chance for the keeper. Howard set it up as you'd expect from last season's form player and consistent class act.
And if you still thought he doesn't give a monkey's, check out the 40-yard-plus sprint and chance-saving tackle he made when his attacking free-kick went wrong and QPR went box to box, top speed.
Jon Macken, scorer of plenty of summer goals, fluffed a simpler opening even before Hume showed him how. Macken guided Martin Devaney's low cross straight at Radek Cerny, who looked a bit dodgy all afternoon but couldn't mess that up.
Apart from the finishing, Barnsley dished out a bit of a football lesson in the first 15 minutes.
Fireworks and two black-box flame-throwers lit the grim grey, rainy sky over West London as the players arrived.
QPR have spent some of the billions their owners are sitting on.
They've tarted up the ground, even put a giant TV screen where all but the visiting fans can view
It's easy to see that they will be a force in the Champion-ship. Probably when Martin Rowlands, Damion Stewart and Samuel Di Carmine are back from suspensions and when crocks Akos Buzsaky and Rowan Vine get fit again.
They gave Spanish kid Daniel Parejo his debut off the bench. The lad on loan from Real Madrid and reckoned to bewanted by Arsenal was the target of crude skull-duggery late in the second half as Marciano van Homoet hit him with a real horror tackle.
The Dutchman flew in, could have broken bones.
"The game was marred only by one horrendous challenge," QPR boss Iain Dowie complained.
Referee Neil Swarbrick reached for the red card. Barnsley boss Simon Davey didn't dispute it either.
Otherwise Mr Swarbrick was no Mr Popular in Davey's eyes. A free-kick which was awarded the wrong way brought Hall's firstgoal and QPR's equaliser.
Davey argued: "The ball has come across and Stephen (Foster) has been fouled. We didn'tget that and we found ourselves defending a set play just outside the box, which is always going to be dangerous.
"Their scoring a goal was always a likelihood."
One free-kick brought three chances. QPR's non-scoring man of the match, Emmanuel Ledesma, shot, Luke Steele saved. It fizzed about the six-yard box and Hall smashed a shot on to the crossbar before bundling home from close range. Goals don't come much more untidy.
Hall's second was pure class. Launched from the inside-right channel, it flew direct in via a top volley. Even the guests of the club, trolley dollies from QPR sponsors Gulf Air, might have been impressed.
The serious money men in front of them, QPR chairman Flavio Briatore and his mate, Jacob Ecclestone, must have thought: 'More like it.'
Shame for them, there wasn't anything else like it.
Of course, it should have been 3-1 when ref Swarbrick pointed to the spot following Darren Moore's beefy challenge on Dexter Blackstock, who flew through the air for effect. The striker went down, crash-landed and Swarbrick gave it loads of thought before the verdict.
Hall's penalty wasn't the best; Steele guessed right and got down quick for a great save.
It was something for Barnsley to build on, you'd have thought. True, they did give it a go, but never bossed the game like they had in the first half.
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