Power of Lyndon is above Law
Stevie tells pal Dykes to focus on topping Livi scoring charts
Strike mate Stevie tells Dykes to focus on topping the charts
STEVIE LAWLESS has told Scotland hopeful Lyndon Dykes a cap call should take a back seat to topping the scoring charts at Livingston.
The midfielder watched his teammate edge two goals ahead of him for the season after the Aussie-born hitman’s hat-trick helped dismantle under-the-weather Ross County.
Dykes now has nine to his credit and continues to catch the eye of national boss Stevie Clarke but Lawless insists club must come before country.
He said: “I’m not talking to Lyndon about either Scotland or Australia. He’s ahead of me in the scoring charts now so he needs to worry about that rather than getting a call-up.
“He’s a great player to play with and has a lot of attributes you need in the modern game.
“Lyndon doesn’t have a big ego. If he continues to do what he does then I’m sure there will be teams looking at him.
“International football depends on him. I know he has been getting spoken about.
“He has the right attributes to play at that level. Hopefully, he keeps plugging away for us and that will help him get there.”
Dykes has been a revelation for Gary Holt’s side since arriving from Queen of the South in the summer and Lawless believes the sky could be the limit for the 25-year-old.
He said: “Lyndon is more aware of what it takes now. I hadn’t seen much about him but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. He hit the ground running from the word go.
“He’s physical, has pace in behind and I don’t think there are many defenders who like playing against him. They are starting to worry about him. Most of Scotland is starting to take notice of him now. “He’s a great guy. We have a great bunch of guys here with no egos at all so he would need to be that way to fit in anyway. We knew if the gaffer was looking at him he would be like that. “If he continues to do what he’s doing I can’t see him getting too big for his boots. He’ll have a lot of admirers.” Ricki Lamie slammed in Livi’s opener on the half-hour against a County side who looked out of sorts on the back of a sickness bug which had swept through the Dingwall club’s dressing room last week.
Dykes rattled in second before the break and the Aussie slammed in a third just seconds after the restart.
He then completed his treble with a header to cap a perfect day for the Lions who moved above both County and Hibs into sixth spot.
It may have looked like a cruise for Livi but Lawless revealed the players were far from satisfied with elements of their performance.
He said: “The first half could easily have gone differently. We were 2-0 up but we weren’t playing great stuff.
“We had words at half-time and managed to bring out a better performance in the second half.
“The coaching staff came in maybe five minutes after us and we had already sat and spoken about it.
“We knew we weren’t picking up second balls and that was putting us under pressure. So we knew what we had to do and you saw that in the second half. For about 35 minutes we were unplayable.
“We have Aberdeen on Thursday and know it will be a difficult game. But we know what we can do so we will be going there trying to win.”