DANNY Welbeck and Michael Owen scored to send Manchester United through to the last eight of the Carling Cup.

Welbeck headed home from close range after six minutes, and although Barnsley had some decent chances themselves, Owen's sharply taken goal just before the hour settled matters.

The main negative on the night for United was a straight red card for Gary Neville after the skipper's foul on Adam Hammill after 63 minutes.

But the Championship side proved that United’s defensive frailties run deeper than just the crisis couple of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, repeatedly exposing their illustrious rivals with managing to fully punish them.

If boss Sir Alex Ferguson was considering shaking up his rearguard after an indifferent start to the season he may be forced to think again after seeing how his second string struggled to contain Barnsley.

If not for the profligate finishing of Mark Robins’ side and one excellent second half save from Ben Foster, United could have been on the receiving end of an embarrassing defeat.

Time and again Barnsley found themselves presented with glorious opportunities – either from set pieces or open play, only to continually fluff their lines.

Conversely, United created few openings, but had the luxury of finishers like Welbeck and Owen to make the most of them.

How United were grateful for Welbeck’s opener after just six minutes.

Ferguson believes the 19-year-old could gatecrash Fabio Capello’s World Cup party next summer, but he hardly had to be of international class to score his second goal in successive games in this competition.

United lead

His well-taken strike was enough to see off Wolves last month, but on this occasion he was allowed to ghost in at the near post to nod home Anderson’s corner.

It gave United a foothold, but Barnsley could consider themselve unfortunate not to go in at the break on level terms.

First Daniel Bogdanovic and then Stephen Foster failed to hit the target when afforded free headers from corners.

Owen should have put United further clear soon after the re-start, but he made no mistake on 59 minutes when put through by substitute Zoran Tosic.

Wriggling into space thanks to a fine nutmeg, the England striker coolly slotted past Luke Steele to put United in complete control.

But if United expected it to knock the stuffing out Barnsley they were wrong as the home side created more than enough chances to get back into the game.

Anderson da Silva dragged one shot wide when he should have worked Ben Foster, while Iain Hulme headed wide when he had the whole goal to aim for.

Bogdanovic again failed to call Foster into action when in a good position and Anderson was guilty of wastefulness once again when heading wide.

It took Jacob Butterfield to finally bring the best out of Foster with a low shot that the keeper was at full stretch to keep out.

Ferguson traditionally uses this competition to blood his youngsters, but on this occasion it gave him the welcome opportunity to introduce Obertan to English football following his move from Bordeaux in the summer.

Obertan has spent his time so far at Old Trafford recuperating from an operation to cure a problem back, but Ferguson has high hopes he has discovered a gem in the winger once considered one of the most exciting young players in Europe.

There was little evidence of that last night, apart from brief flashes in the first half, in a match that was always going to be about getting minutes under the Frenchman’s belt.

That it turned out to be another worrying night for his rearguard will have been of much greater concern for the United manager.

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