PRESTON are dreaming of another Premiership cup encounter after their fabulous display on Tuesday ensured their spot in the third round of the Worthington Cup.

Flowing football, a watertight defence and some fantastic individual efforts helped North End overcome a two-goal deficit from the first leg to beat Sheffield United 3-0 at Deepdale, and 3-2 overall.

And thoughts around the ground have already turned to this weekend's draw for the next round.

Judging by Tuesday's results, North End have a fair chance of entertaining one of the country's top sides.

PNE could paired up with Aston Villa, Liverpool, Middlesbrough or Sunderland when the draw is made on Sunday.

On the other hand, they could find themselves travelling to Grimsby, West Brom or Watford!

But before anyone gets carried away with the prospect of entertaining some of the country's big guns, there is league action to concentrate on first, with an away trip to Brentford - a team unbeaten this season.

PNE will be oozing confidence for the game, having convincingly beaten Gillingham last weekend before their midweek heroics.

Brentford have not been beaten for 22 games and were promoted to the second division on the back of such an impressive run.

North End look set to line-up with Jon Macken and hero-of-the-hour Alex Mathie once again, with Tepi Moilanen probably still in goal.

It would be a very brave David Moyes who dropped Tepi after excellent performances in the last two games.

Mark Rankine has been in fantastic form of late and although his performance in the Gillingham game was very good, the best is yet to come.

He said: "We were delighted to win, but we can do better than that.

"We needed that win; we deserved it. We worked very hard and the support we got was just amazing.

"They really got behind us, they were just great."

North End currently have eight players out injured, including Kurt Nogan, Michael Appleton, Sean Gregan and Dominic Ludden.

David Moyes said: "We have a lot of players injured but moaning about it doesn't help. We have to get on with it."

However, the club has received some good news - Farid Diaf is back in the country. The French midfielder, who arrived for three months at the start of the season was injured during pre-season when he tore a groin muscle. He returned to France for treatment, but was due back in Preston this week.

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