Peter Whittingham's first-half strike won Cardiff the points
Barnsley were unable to avenge last seasons's FA Cup semi-final defeat as Cardiff took the points at Oakwell.
Cardiff wing Peter Whittingham capped a fine display with the only goal after 14 minutes, seizing on a poor defensive header from Darren Moore to shoot home.
Roger Johnson could have doubled the visitors' lead soon after but saw his header strike the crossbar.
Kayode Odejayi almost rescued a draw for Barsnley at the death but shaved the post with a flicked header.
Barnsley manager Simon Davey: "It was a good (Cardiff) goal. We were more disappointed they got the cross in.
"If Darren Moore didn't head it the Cardiff player would have got it anyway, so I don't blame Darren for that.
"We were not good enough in the first half but in the second we huffed and puffed without getting any luck. So it is a very disappointing result again.
"Our set-pieces were very poor, it was very frustrating to hit the first man every time, but its down to the players when they cross the white line."
Cardiff manager Dave Jones: "It was always going to be a difficult task to continue the football we played during the first 45 minutes.
"They were chasing shadows in the first half and I asked them to do it again but Barnsley changed it a bit and went direct so my defence had to step up to the plate.
"But we were still in control and I felt we should have made life easy with a second but we didn't.
"We showed two sides to us today, especially in the second where they started to throw the ball into the box but in the end our goalkeeper has not had a great deal to do."
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