Kalvin Phillips hit a stunning double but United’s Under-21s were made to settle for a point after battling out a 3-3 draw away to Nottingham Forest on Monday afternoon.

A late equaliser from Forest first-teamer Lars Veldwijk denied Jason Blunt’s side the three points as they surrendered a two-goal lead at Wilford Lane, ending the game with 10 men.

Phillips added to his growing reputation in the Academy with two impressive first-half goals, beating Ross Durrant with an audacious overhead kick for his first before curling a free-kick beyond the stranded Forest goalkeeper to make it 2-0.

But United’s afternoon’s was not to be all plain sailing as summer signing Dario Del Fabro was shown a straight red card just before the break for an alleged kick on Roger Riera.

Forest pulled one back through Luke Thomas 10 minutes after the restart, but Brian Montenegro soon restored the two-goal lead with a sweet volley over goalkeeper Ross Durrant’s head after showing good strength to bring down a free-kick.

Riera then headed home from a corner to make it a nervy closing 25 minutes for United’s youngsters as Forest pushed forward in search of an equaliser and eventually grabbed one through Veldwijk’s near-post header right at the death.

United: Grimes, Booker, Del Fabro, Skelton, Denton, Purver, Phillips, Thompson, Dawson, Parkin, Montenegro. Subs. Atkinson, Lyman, Bennett, McDaid, Mulhern.