Dykes’ debut showing leaves Clarke delighted

Steve Clarke was delighted with the debut performance of Lyndon Dykes, writes Eric Nicolson.

The QPR striker provided the link-up play the Scotland boss was looking for and also provided a hint of more to come.

The Scots toiled for fluency as an attacking force against Israel but anytime they did put a string of passes together, Dykes was involved.

He also made a contribution to the move that led to Ryan Christie’s penalty opener.

“I thought he was excellent,” said Clarke. “He is a strong boy, he gives us a good option.

“We need to look, especially in the second-half of the game, to get a little more support forward to Lyndon a little bit earlier. But that is something we can work on and it will improve.”

Scotland will face Israel again in the Euro 2020 play-off next month and asked whether this match will have a bearing on the more important one to come, Clarke said: “I think we have both had a little look at each other.

“We played a strong team, they played a strong team. I think everyone was hoping for the three points tonight. It is only a point.

“We will have some video, we will have some idea of some problems they can cause us. Likewise, they will have some ideas of problems that we can cause them.

“It should be an interesting game next month.”

Clarke played three at the back to accommodate Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson, with Scott McTominay a surprise centre-half on the night.

He said: “I was just looking to give us another option and a different way to play at certain times against certain teams. It just seemed like a good game to try it.

“Obviously, Kieran had come back in and I wanted to see Kieran and Andy playing.

“Kieran has been playing very well in that position and I thought he acquitted himself really well tonight as well along with Scott McKenna and Scott McTominay. I thought the back three were decent.”

Clarke added: “We were reasonably pleased.

“There was obviously a slight tweak to the system and we only had three days’ training to work on it. The lads took a lot on board.

“There were some good things, some bad things obviously.

“It was disappointing to lose the goal in the second half when I thought we had reasonable control of the game defensively.

“There was maybe not enough going forward at that stage in the game, but towards the end of the game we pushed on again.”

Dykes told BBC Sportsound: “I was excited to be out there. It was disappointing the result in the end.

“I definitely enjoyed it. It would’ve been much better with the fans there.

“I think we should be doing better. Looking at the squad, we’ve got world class.

“We need a confidence.

“It didn’t happen for us today but there’s always the next game.” bit of belief, a bit of

Picture: PA. Lyndon Dykes is congratulated for his performance by manager Steve Clarke after being substituted.