Patched up Pompey fell to a 2-0 defeat at Oakwell yesterday after Dave Kitson was sent off in the first half for two bookable offences.
Michael Appleton's side create little in what was a dire game of football contested by two poor teams. The only piece of good news to come from the day was George Thorne's return to Pompey on loan from West Brom and he went straight into the team.
Thorne replaced the injured Liam Lawrence whilst the woeful Aaron Mokoena was in for Greg Halford who limped off in Tuesday's defeat to Ipswich.
Barnsley started the game on the front foot as Craig Davies' shot hit the top of the crossbar whilst some poor Pompey defending led to a couple of panic clearances.
But the game descended into a Sunday League affair with neither side able to pass to a team mate and fouls were aplenty, including one by Kitson on Stephen Foster which resulted in a yellow card.
The visitors' only chance of the half came when a neat passage of play saw Joel Ward square the ball to Erik Huseklepp whose first-time shot sailed wide. The Norwegian had more time than he realised and should have taken an extra touch or two before shooting.
Winning this game would have been difficult enough with eleven men but Pompey were reduced to ten when Kitson's stupidty and petulence saw him earn a second bookable offence for a needless high challenge on Korey Smith.
The Pompey striker trudged off the pitch and did not even acknowledge the fans who were (wrongfully) applauding him off as some of them believed the referee had got the decision wrong.
There were no real chances of note for Pompey in the second half as they struggled to keep the ball. Despite this, the home side could not make their numerical advantage tell as they couldn't break down a dogged Pompey defence very often and when they did, they were wasteful.
In fact, the closest Keith Hill's side came to scoring was via a Pompey player when Stephen Henderson had to produce a reflex save to stop Ricardo Rocha heading into his own net.
Mullins hooked a clearance straight into Henderson's arms as Pompey players continued to pile the pressure on their own goalkeeper whilst not testing Luke Steele in the opposite goal.
Unfortunately 'Appy's ten men couldn't hold on for a draw as Jim O'Brien unleashed a curling shot that found the bottom corner of the net with just 14 minutes remaining.
Appleton's response was to bring on Benjani for the final minutes as Pompey pushed for an equaliser.
They won a free kick in stoppage time but Huseklepp's effort was blocked, Barnsley broke and Matt Done had the simple task of slotting past Henderson with no Pompey defenders to challenge him.
Whilst it would be easy to blame Kitson for yesterday's defeat (and he deserves plenty for letting his team mates and the fans down) there was simply no creativity in that Pompey performance.
Nobody was making penetrating runs into the Barnsley defence whilst forward passes were going nowhere. It's a shame because the players had dug in and looked comfortable at the back with ten men until O'Brien's quality goal.
But something has to change because in the last two games Pompey have not looked like scoring and this was a problem ealier in the season that Appleton did well to solve.
Now he needs to find another solution to the goalscoring problem whether that be a change of system or personnel - that's if the Football League allow Portsmouth to loan more players on an emergency basis.
Nottingham Forest's win over Coventry yesterday meant that Pompey are now in the bottom three of the Championship. If you thought that surviving in this division was still going to be a formality after the points deduction then think again.
Pompey Player Ratings
Stephen Henderson: 5 - Distribution was poor.
Tal Ben-Haim: 5 - Not good enough.
Ricardo Rocha: 6 - Solid apart from almost scoring an own goal.
Jason Pearce: 6 - Got stuck in.
Aaron Mokoena: 4 - Woeful at times.
Joel Ward: 6 - Kept going despite injury.
George Thorne: 6 - Looked good on the ball.
Hayden Mullins: 6 - Always busy.
Erik Huseklepp: 5 - Poor delivery.
Dave Kitson: 3 - Let everyone down.
Marko Futacs: 5 - Barely in the game.
Substitutes
Jamie Ashdown
Adam Webster
Benjani (Rocha 85): N/A - No influence.