Sir Jack Hayward was back in time to discover that still nothing is ever easy with Wolves.

The former owner watched the club which brought him more torment and trouble than he ever bargained for duly claim the point required for the Championship title and then remind him why he is best off out of it – bobbing about the oceans with his feet up in his hard-earned years of leisure.

All anyone who cares for Wolves should have been talking about over the weekend is the enormity of this season’s success which sees Mick McCarthy’s team now stretched so far out in front they have all but disappeared from view of the opponents who once threatened them.

They have scored more goals than any other team, won more games and provided lashings of entertainment up and down the country.

But, sadly, that isn’t all they have been talking about is it?

The triumph was stained at Oakwell by pitch invasions which left McCarthy squaring up to one supporter and his players scurrying down the tunnel to safety while leaving behind mounted police and riot squad officers to keep a lid on the potential mayhem.

Now only a few idiots among the hundreds, from both ends of the ground, were looking for a little trouble.

The invasions which followed first Kyel Reid’s point-securing equaliser and then the final whistle may have been misplaced, misguided and a total misjudgement of the moment but they were largely driven by smiles and celebration.

But this was still no way for the Championship’s team of the year to have their big moment saluted.

For 45 games, McCarthy and his players have slogged their way through the multi-faced challenges of this intensely-competitive division, dealt with all its pressures and poison, fighting off all their rivals to reach the professional’s ultimate moment of satisfaction. Champions.

They did not deserve to savour the moment locked inside their dressing room.

What happens next, other than a week spent appealing for supporters to stay in their seats come next Sunday’s finale against Doncaster, is open to debate.

Will there be an FA follow-up? Will one or both clubs be charged with failing to control their supporters?

We wait to see. But it is easy to imagine Sir Jack making his way home thankful that the problems are not his to fret about any more; his successor Steve Morgan, with whom he has built up such a bond of mutual respect and friendship, has enough on his plate without having to spend time worrying about crowd problems and FA enquiries.

Finding and recruiting the players needed to strengthen this squad will be a taxing challenge made all the more demanding by the need to add the right characters to the perfect dressing room mix McCarthy has developed in his three years.

While no-one, not even the players themselves, disputes the team needs more experience and quality for the Premier League, there is clearly a deeply impressive core to the division’s new champions which enabled them to dig deep and turn this game around when you did not expect them to.

As the manager admitted, he struggled to find any words in the build up to this game to help motivate a group who “have had their foot on the floor for 44 games” and knew the title was, barring a spectacular turn of events, theirs.

And for an hour at Barnsley, Wolves struggled to get any kind of foothold. McCarthy always enjoys going back to his first club but goodness knows why – all he ever gets is a warm welcome and a catch-up with his great mentor Norman Rimmington.

In his three visits as Wolves boss, his team have not been given a moment to breathe and this was no different.

It provoked early uncertainty around Wayne Hennessey and his central defenders which Wolves were fortunate to survive, notably when the keeper could not hold a shot from Jamal Campbell-Ryce – a winger who always causes Wolves trouble – and blocked two follow-up attempts by Jon Macken before a third was cleared from under his own bar by Christophe Berra.

That was typical of some of the skirmishes Wolves survived in the first half with Anderson De Silva scuffing a shot wide and an old Albion adversary, Darren Moore, wasting better openings than he realised from set pieces.

Wolves toiled and spoiled as much as the could but, with no Ebanks-Blake, Jones, Kightly and Iwelumo, it was looking a forlorn task as Barnsley claimed a 59th minute lead.

Macken it was who eventually poked home a twice-taken opportunity, set up by De Silva and although the goal had elements of fortune about it, no-one could deny the merit of the home team’s advantage.

Would Wolves pack up and wait for other results or leave it to the Doncaster game next week?

No they wouldn’t. And full marks to them for that.

The pushed just enough of the game back towards the Barnsley goal to create the afternoon’s trigger-point with five minutes left.

Matt Jarvis, who has made some big strides this season despite his injury problems, jinked his way past two defenders before pulling the ball back for substitute Reid to drive a left-foot shot wide of Luke Steele’s fingertips.

That would be the most significant moment on an afternoon otherwise of footnotes.

Such as the impact Sam Vokes continues to make as a substitute, his burly physique replacing Marlon Harewood at the interval, and the 20-odd minutes cameo calling card by teenager Ashley Hemmings in his first senior taste of action. There’s a bit of pace and maturity about this lad which clearly impressed McCarthy.

There may have been more opportunity to talk about his plans for the 18-year-old were McCarthy not having to fend off questions about fans jumping on his back or swarming on to the pitch.

Wolves have a truly impressive travelling core of fans who, whether it’s Palace or Plymouth on a freezing February Tuesday night, turn up in devoted numbers.

They deserve their moment too.

But, thanks to a misguided invasion, this wasn’t it. Let’s hope for better come next Sunday.

By Martin Swain.