Preston North End winger Tom Barkhuizen is raising the bar high with the quality of his Carabao Cup goals

Barkhuizen made it two out of two in the Carabao Cup this season with a fantastic strike in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Derby.

He met Darnell Fisher’s knock down just outside the box with a shot on the half-volley which crashed into the net off the underside of the bar.

It pulled PNE level and Daniel Johnson went on to score from the penalty spot in stoppage-time to send them through.

Barkhuizen had scored a good goal in the first-round win over Mansfield, arrowing a low first-time shot into the far corner.

PNE fans voted his winner against Blackburn as last season’s goal of the year and the former Morecambe man has now set the bar high in his defence of it.

“In my four years here most of the shots I have tried like I did at Derby have ended up in Row Z,” said Barkhuizen.

“It was the same in the last round against Mansfield, if I tried that again it would go out for a throw-in on the other side of the pitch.

“I’m hitting them quite nicely at the moment and long may that continue.

“I think I was frustrated more with the one-on-one chance I missed against Swansea than I was happy with this one at Derby.

“That’s happened a bit when I’ve got through on goal and I need to be better.

“But bouncing back and scoring in the manner I did was a big boost.”

Barkhuizen scored 11 goals last season, nine of those in the Championship.

All were before lockdown and he wasn’t able to find his feet in the restart.

His two goals against Derby and Mansfield suggest he is getting back on the right track.

“My scoring record here is pretty good but that got forgotten over the last six months because as a team we haven’t been great in that time,” said Barkhuizen.

“I know what I can do and want to do better, I know what I can bring to this team from a finishing point of view.”

PNE’s win at Derby came after a spell when speculation went into overdrive about Rangers’ interest in Johnson, so too Ben Davies being linked with Bournemouth.

Barkhuizen said: “You can’t let talk like that have any affect on the pitch. We know players come and go here, we know that when we have such good players other teams will want them.”