Wednesday’s briefing: England fear for Agyemang and Fulham avoid cup shock

England Women’s 3-0 friendly win against Australia at Pride Park was overshadowed by a serious-looking knee injury sustained by Michelle Agyemang.

Fulham survived a penalty shoot-out to edge past third-tier Wycombe in the Carabao Cup, while Grimsby’s giant-killing run was emphatically ended by Brentford and Cardiff dumped out Wrexham.

Agyemang’s ‘awful’ injury mars England win

Sarina Wiegman was concerned about a serious-looking knee injury to forward Michelle Agyemang that marred England’s 3-0 win over Australia.

Substitute Agyemang was carried off on a stretcher as goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and a late Georgia Stanway penalty saw England to a comfortable win at Pride Park.

That came against an Australia side reduced to 10 players in just the 19th minute when Alanna Kennedy was sent off for hauling down Alessia Russo when the England striker was running through on goal.

Agyemang was introduced in the 62nd minute but went down clutching her knee in an off-the-ball incident and Wiegman said: “It was an awful moment, doesn’t look good. We don’t know yet until she gets assessed, but I’m not very positive about what I saw.”

Fulham edge shoot-out at Wycombe

Fulham edged past Wycombe 5-4 on penalties to progress to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals after a 1-1 draw at Adams Park.

Josh King scored his first goal in senior football to equalise for the Premier League side at the start of the second half after Cauley Woodrow netted in the fourth minute against his former club.

Anders Hagelskjaer cleared Kevin’s stoppage-time strike off the line to earn a shoot-out. Fulham twice missed the chance to win it as Ryan Sessegnon and Jonah Kusi-Asare were denied by goalkeeper Will Norris but after Donnell McNeilly’s kick was saved, Issa Diop thumped in the winner.

Brentford cruised into the last eight of the Carabao Cup with a clinical 5-0 win at Blundell Park. Grimsby famously beat Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday to reach round four but Mathias Jensen opened the scoring from 20 yards before Keane Lewis-Potter and Reiss Nelson effectively put the tie to bed before the break, with Fabio Carvalho scoring a penalty and substitute Nathan Collins also on target.

Will Fish’s second-half volley secured Cardiff the bragging rights against Wrexham, sealing a 2-1 win in the two Welsh clubs’ first meeting in 21 years.

Celtic fan groups continue campaign against board

Celtic fan groups vowed to step up their campaign to remove key directors in the wake of Brendan Rodgers’ departure after laying the blame for the club’s “crisis” squarely on the board.

A pre-match protest is planned ahead of Wednesday’s game against Falkirk by the Celtic Fans Collective, an umbrella group formed following discontent over summer transfer business and failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Principal shareholder Dermot Desmond blamed recent failings on “one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others” as he launched a scathing assessment of the departed manager.

But a statement from Celtic Fans Collective read: “Supporters hold differing views on Rodgers but regardless of how anyone feels about our former manager, the ultimate responsibility for our current position lies with the board who appointed, reappointed and managed the manager as well as holding responsibility for all other operational matters.”

What’s on today?

Nine Premier League teams are in Carabao Cup action, including four all-top flight fourth-round ties.

Liverpool and Arsenal have home games against Crystal Palace and Brighton respectively, Manchester City play at Swansea, Newcastle take on Tottenham at St James’ Park and Chelsea travel to Wolves.

Martin O’Neill takes on Falkirk in his first game after returning to Celtic as temporary boss, while leaders Hearts face St Mirren and Rangers travel to Hibernian.