Patrick Bauer ready for Preston North End's test from Premier League side Brighton in the Carabao Cup

The compacted fixture list means at the moment the schedule is Championship football at the weekend and the cup in midweek.

It was just last week that North End dispatched Derby County from the Carabao Cup, beating them 2-1 at Pride Park.

Having drawn 2-2 at Norwich on Saturday in the league, Alex Neil’s men will put their cup hats on and look to find a way past Premier League side Brighton.

If they were to beat the Seagulls, a fourth-round home clash with Manchester United or Luton Town awaits next week which would add to the ‘sprint start’ nature of these early weeks.

PNE centre-half Patrick Bauer thinks the depth of the North End squad allows for a decent run at the Carabao Cup without it distracting from the league.

The German was one of 10 players drafted into the side at Derby last week after not starting the Championship opener against Swansea.

Bauer held on to his place at Norwich and is more than likely to start the Brighton clash.

“Our squad is a really good one, we have a lot of good players,” said Bauer.

“The gaffer always sets us up to try and win the game and last week at Derby he thought it was right to play with a different set of players than who had started against Swansea.

“I’ve played the two games since and really enjoyed it.”

Bauer started the first-round win over Mansfield in August alongside Paul Huntington at the back.

Against Swansea, Neil opted to pair Jordan Storey and Ben Davies.

In came Bauer and Huntington at Derby, with it being Bauer and Davies for the trip to Norwich.

There is no Huntington for Brighton’s visit, the defender having been booked in the Mansfield and Derby games.

Yellow cards in the Carabao Cup do not carry over into the league in terms of totting up towards a suspension.

Instead two Carabao Cup cautions trigger a one-game ban, so Huntington has to sit this out.

Said Bauer: “We played a few friendlies in pre-season and the gaffer had a look at all in the defenders in different pairings.

“He was testing different options, just as he does with the offensive players.

“We train together and so we all know one another’s game, it’s not a problem if the team changes.”

Bauer and Storey facing Brighton is an educated guess, considering Davies was forced off with cramp in the latter stages at Norwich.

With the Wednesday-to-Saturday turnaround – the Lilywhites face Stoke at the weekend – it might be a risk to play Davies.

Whoever plays at the back for PNE will have to be on their toes against Brighton.

Their 3-0 victory at Newcastle United on Sunday followed a 4-0 win over Portsmouth last Thursday in the second round.

Seagulls boss Graham Potter made 11 changes for the games, so we can assume the side which lines up at Deepdale will resemble closely the one which faced Portsmouth.

Their attack against Pompey was led by Viktor Gyokeres and Alireza Jahambakhsh, both players finding the net.

Bauer said: “Brighton had a very good win at Newcastle, I watched some of the game and they scored two goals very early.

“There are a lot of teams who can change their starting XIs entirely for the cup games.

“For our gaffer it won’t be easy to prepare as he won’t know exactly who we will be facing but I’m sure he will find a solution.

“As a player you want to test yourself against the best players and Brighton are a Premier League side.

“Whoever plays against us will be very good players and we have to be ready.

“As a team we have a lot of confidence at the moment.

“Since the Swansea game, we have gone to Derby and won, then drawn at Norwich who are a very good team.

“We played well at Norwich and were close to getting a win.

“You could say a draw there wasn’t a bad result but we were a little disappointed not to get three points.

“As a team we have scored four goals in two away games which is a good sign.”

With only a week between rounds two, three and four in the Carabao Cup, the draw has been done a round in advance.

When PNE were pitched against Derby, they then found out that Brighton or Portsmouth would await in the third round.

Who emerges victorious at Deepdale will face Luton or United at home next week, the incentive there to make progress.