Dykes’ emergence is a glimmer amid the gloom for Clarke

SCOTLAND MAY HAVE FAILED TO INSPIRE AGAINST THE CZECHS, BUT DEADLY DYKES LOOKS LIKE HE’S A...

He has been a remarkable find for Scotland in these games

THERE was a welcome irony amid an otherwise grim Monday night in Olomouc as a Scotland forward chose the Czech Republic as the country in which to announce his international arrival.

Ten years on from Craig Levein’s infamous strikerless 4-6-0 formation in Prague, Lyndon Dykes showed enough promise in scoring his first goal for his country — on only his second appearance — to suggest that he could, indeed, be the new hero Scotland so badly needs.

Running on to a superb, dangerous delivery from the right flank by Sheffield Wednesday’s Liam Palmer, the new £2million Queens Park Rangers signing showed a true poacher’s instinct to react quickest and turn the ball high into the net.

Combined with his pace and power to run on to balls played over the top — a strength to which his team-mates did not always play at the Andruv Stadium — the Australian-born 24-year-old adds a welcome new dimension to the Scotland set-up.

It may have been against a hastily put-together Czech B team, with nine out of the home starting XI making their international debuts after the first team were unable to play due to a positive coronavirus test in the camp.

But with Lawrence Shankland, Oli McBurnie and Steven Naismith all missing for the Scots, the former Livingston striker grabbed his big chance with both hands ahead of next month’s Euro 2020 play-off semi-final with Israel at Hampden.

‘Lyndon Dykes has been a remarkable find,’ said BBC Scotland analyst and former Scotland attacker Neil McCann.

‘For me, he is the biggest positive from the last two matches for Scotland.

‘What I like about him is he wants to score right through the middle. So many strikers are looking for a clipped ball into the box or a pull back.

‘But I used to be a winger and I loved putting balls into that space that Liam Palmer did for Dykes. It’s food and drink for a big striker. Dykes has been superb.’

He had also been a shining light up front on his own during Friday night’s disappointing 1-1 Nations League draw with the Israelis at Hampden.

So impressive was he on his international debut that one of his team-mates had confidently predicted his first goal was destined to arrive in Olomouc.

It duly came to cancel out Jakub Pesek’s early strike for the hosts before Ryan Christie sealed the win after the break from a disputed penalty.

‘Kenny (McLean) said to Lyndon before the game: “You are going to score tonight”,’ revealed right wing-back Palmer.

‘I was just delighted to see the ball come off his foot and go into the roof of the net.

‘It was hard work for Lyndon in the first game against Israel. He put in a real shift at Hampden but nothing really fell for him, so I was delighted to see him get off the mark against the Czech Republic.

‘I was delighted with my assist, too. I was trying to get forward because we needed to react after going a goal down early on. We managed to do that and claw our way back into the game.’

In a bid to counter the avalanche of criticism that has come their way after Monday night’s otherwise disjointed performance, Steve Clarke’s players have been defiantly accentuating the positives.

They could point to the fact that the Czech game was the first time a Scotland side have lost the first goal away from home and recovered to win since beating the Republic of Ireland 2-1 at Lansdowne Road in May 2000.

Given the unprecedented nature of the build-up to the match — which was declared off by the Czechs football authorities last Friday night before UEFA insisted it was on again — Palmer always suspected it would be tough in Olomouc.

But he was pleased by the strength of character shown by the Scots in battling back from the early setback of Pesek’s goal.

‘Was the game going to be on? Or not? We tried to focus and prepare as best we could but things like the manager’s pre-match meetings were interrupted,’ said Palmer.

‘Normally, we would go through four or five different videos (on the opposition) but we weren’t privy to that this time.

‘We knew the Czech Republic would be right at it from the first whistle — and that’s how it was — because some of their players had an opportunity to shine and they may not play for their country again.

‘We knew going a goal down early doors that we would have to dig in and show a reaction to adversity that the manager always speaks about.

‘That’s one of the things he likes to focus on and we’ve shown that in recent wins. That’s definitely a positive to take into the next match.

‘And we showed accountability in the last ten minutes when they threw their keeper up and put bodies up and we won a lot of first balls, second balls. We put our bodies on the line and it paid dividends.’

Scotland are now five unbeaten since last October and top Nations League Group B2 with four points from their opening two games.

Ahead of next month’s vital Hampden play-off semi final with Israel, Palmer is hoping that momentum propels Dykes and the team on to a final date with Norway or Serbia.

‘We are going to focus on the positives,’ he said. ‘That’s four wins and a draw in five and we are on top of our Nations League group after two games. That’s what we set out to do.

‘We’ve got it all in front of us still and we are looking forward to the qualifying play-off game.

‘We end the camp on a positive note. Now let’s keep that ball rolling.’