Forest Green Rovers fell to a 3-2 defeat to Manchester United U21s in their opening National League Cup tie at The New Lawn on Wednesday night.

Rovers made the perfect start inside four minutes when Joe Quigley neatly played through Christian Doidge who calmly slotted into the far corner.

Harvey Bunker almost doubled Rovers' lead on 15 minutes when he tried his luck from distance, but his effort whistled just past the post.

The visitors drew level on Malachi Sharpe who swept home a low cross on 28 minutes before taking the lead five minutes later through a driven Ethan Ennis effort.

Two minutes later, Bunker sent Rovers into the break level when he struck a fierce volleyed effort past Dermot Mee via a deflection after Quigley's initial effort was blocked.

Rovers started the second period brightly and almost had the lead through Tyrese Omotoye when he cut in off the left to send a driven effort towards goal, but it was smartly tipped over by Dermot Mee on 75 minutes.

United retook the lead on 77 minutes when Victor Musa broke through on goal before steadying himself to bend an effort into the bottom corner earning the visitors all three points in this opening group tie.

Match Highlights

Starting XI- Searle (GK) (Pagel 84’), Lavinier, Tozer, (Walsh 71’), Doidge (Conteh 84’), Omotoye, Bunker, Maddox, Quigley (Marquez 87’), Hughes, Merrett (Wilson 88’), Petrynski

Unused subs: Bonnick, Raut

Player of the Match: Christian Doidge

Attendance: 1,273