Nottingham Forest under-21s kicked off their second successive season in the EFL Trophy with a 2-1 victory over Carlisle United.

Forest reached the knockout stages of the Bristol Street Motors-sponsored competition last season before going out to Doncaster Rovers.

Joe Gardner opened the scoring for the young Reds but with just two minutes of normal time remaining Jake Allan scored a well-taken solo goal.

With penalties looming large, Forest under-21s hit the League Two team on the counter and Archie Whitehall swept home after some good work from Kyle McAdam.

Back has spent two seasons on loan with Carlisle. He made 19 appearances during his first spell with the club and made a further 21 during last season.

He's now back at Forest though aiming to help the B-Team kick on in the Premier League 2 and establish themselves in that division.

Last night, the player operated as a right-sided wing-back and his experience helped Forest as they overcome a team who last season were playing in the third tier.

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Back clearly has a lot of respect for Carlisle as a club and after the game, he took to X to share a message to Carlisle.

He posted: "Nice to see some familiar faces, all the best for the rest of the season @officialcufc."

The defender has been dealt a pretty drab hand in recent years, with injuries robbing him of any real consistency.

Back does have a chance now, however, to play regular football albeit at the under-21 level which he has perhaps outgrown a little bit.

A loan move might have been ideal for Back but perhaps the club just want to keep a watchful eye on his fitness this year and get him back to playing football.

The defender does look unlikely to make an impact in the Premier League any time soon but there is definitely a player in there.

Last night he showed some really nice touches against Carlisle and he will be a big player for the under-21 during the current campaign.