Preston North End were knocked out of the League Cup last night, losing to Middlesbrough in a penalty shoot-out after drawing 2-2 in 90 minutes. 

It was a performance that showed great improvement for the Championship's bottom club with plenty of aspects to come away happy with.

They showed far greater attacking impetus than they have done throughout a lot of the season, having failed to score in four of their nine games.

Winger Tom Barkhuizen was the catalyst for the improved attacking display, putting in a great performance down the right wing.

This is FLW Spotlight, where we take a closer look at an individual player's performance in a recent match and look at what they did well and where they could improve.

Despite playing in, and starting, every match for Alex Neil's side this season Barkhuizen has gone relatively unnoticed amongst Football League fans.

Last night, however, showed that he is somebody who is worth taking note of.

It was clear from early on that the 25-year-old was going to be a problem for the Boro defence and he proved to be so, scoring their second goal of the evening on the 66th minute to retake the lead.

His fierce near-post strike was too strong for Dimi Konstantopoulos, but North End could not hold on to their lead and ended up losing the match on penalties.

But the performance of Barkhuizen will have given the fans and Neil plenty to be optimistic about.