Aston Villa's Under-23s began their Premier League 2 campaign with a thrilling 5-2 victory over Nottingham Forest at Bodymoor Heath.
After falling 2-0 behind early in the first half, goals from Aaron Ramsey, Brad Young (2), a trialist and Cameron Archer completed an excellent comeback and secured all three points for Mark Delaney's side
The visitors flew out of the blocks and their opening goal after nine minutes was deserved, with Oliver Hammond firing home from the edge of the penalty area after Villa failed to clear.
Forest's momentum continued and they doubled their advantage just after the midway point of the first half through William Swan, who tapped home from close range.
Villa grew into the game from that moment, with captain Ramsey driving his team forward from midfield.
He had an effort from a tight angle comfortably saved before getting a goal back five minutes before half-time, placing his shot through Nicky Hogarth's legs after a mistake at the back.
After ending the first half on top, Villa were dominant and clinical in the opening stages of the second period.
Young got the equaliser with a close-range header just after the break, before a trialist applied a back-post finish on 51 minutes to put Delaney's side 3-2 ahead.
The advantage was doubled just two minutes later, with Archer whipping a shot beyond Hogarth and into the bottom corner for Villa's fourth of the game.
Archer was inches away from making it five on the hour-mark, but he hit the post after rounding the Forest goalkeeper.
The hosts continued to press but the away side had a golden chance to reduce the deficit after Filip Marschall brought down Detaf Esapa Osong inside the penalty area, but Lewis Salmon's spot-kick struck the crossbar.
Delaney's team did get their fifth in the dying moments, with substitute Jayden Barber's low cross converted by Young for his second of the night.
Villa will look to make it back-to-back wins when they travel to Heritage Park to face Middlesbrough next Friday at 7pm.
Aston Villa: Marschall; Zito (Barber 67'), Bogarde, Swinkels, Patterson; Oroegbunam (Raikhy 74'), Lindley, A. Ramsey (C) (Reddin 88'); Archer, B. Young, Trialist.
Substitutes not used: Zych, Goodridge.
Nottingham Forest: Hogarth; McDonnell, Rama, Donnelly, Sanders; Hammond, Barnes; McAdam, Salmon (Collins 76'), Gibson-Hammond (Gardner 66'); Swan (Osong 59').
Substitutes not used: Watkins.
