Preston North End winger Brandon Barker impresses Alex Neil in Carabao Cup win over Morecambe

How they rated: Who impressed for Preston North End in their Carabao Cup win over Morecambe?

Barker found the net with a 13th minute shot to set PNE on their way to a 3-1 victory.

He was lively playing on the left-wing before being taken off after the third goal with possibly one eye on Saturday teatime's clash with Stoke City at Deepdale.

Signed on a season-long loan from Manchester City last week, Barker had come on as a sub in the weekend loss at Swansea.

North End manager Neil said: “Brandon has got real pace and can go either side.

“He is predominantly right-footed yet he goes and arrows one with his left foot into the corner from 25 yards.

“We need to keep Brandon involved in the game as much as possible.

“For the first 25 minutes he did really well and then we stopped feeding him the ball.

“He faded out of it a bit, so we need to work on getting the ball to him more.

“I’ve said before that he will get fans off their seats and Brandon is more than capable of producing moments of quality.

“I’m really pleased we have got him here and we will try to help him have an even bigger influence on games.”

Barker down the left-wing, with Graham Burke on duty on the other side.

Burke claimed an assist for Louis Moult’s goal which put PNE 2-0 up, the Irishman then getting on the scoresheet himself.

Neil felt former Shamrock Rovers man Burke had shown his versatility by playing on the right.

“Burkey created the goal for Louis with a great lay-off and he is a talented player with a quality left foot,” said Neil.

“I think he is getting much more of a handle on how we play and the shape we have.

“When Burkey gets on the ball it is really effortless for him, that is his strength.

“He can play in a variety of positions – we played him off the right on Tuesday while in pre-season we mainly played him as a No.10.

“Burkey can play on the left at a push and in training I have even played him up front.”

However, Burke might owe a coffee to team-mate Adam O’Reilly after missing a good chance in a one-on-one to stretch PNE’s lead against Morecambe.

He saw his shot saved by Shrimps keeper Barry Roche with the scoreline at 3-1 and had that gone in, Neil was going to give teenager O'Reilly his first-team bow.

Neil said: “We had young Adam on the bench and had Burkey put that chance away, Adam would have got his moment off the bench.”