DYKES SAVES SCOTS FROM HUMILIATION
Blushes are spared by lucky strike
FAROE ISLANDS 0 SCOTLAND 1
LYNDON DYKES saved Scotland from humiliation at the hands of the Faroe Islands.
After beating Israel on Saturday in the 94th minute, this time it took an 87th-minute deflected goal from the QPR man to rescue a win.
Scotland were held and outplayed by a team ranked 114 in the world for much of the game.
But Dykes bundled home in his fourth consecutive game after defender Hordur Askham poked a cross on to his chest.
The Scots are favourites to finish second in Group F and earn a place in the play-offs in March. A win in November against Moldova will be enough.
Clarke’s men will need to improve after lacking finishing power and passion in a game that was ebbing away until Nathan Patterson swung in his decisive cross. It took several minutes for VAR to rule Dykes had not handled the ball into the goal.
Scotland finished the seven minutes of injury time running down the clock.
The Faroes battered them, and looked by far the more coherent team.
It took a brilliant save from Craig Gordon after 24 minute to stop Ari Jonsson’s point blank shot.
Moments later Brandur Hendriksson curled in a cross from an awkward angle and unmarked defender Sonni
Nattestad met it with a header that crashed just over.
Then Odmar Faero went close in an unexpectedly even first half.
Scott McTominay, fresh from his first international goal in the 94th minute at Hampden at the weekend, had a couple of shots from an angle saved, but it was a toil in the first half.
He would have won a penalty jinking into the box had he not been offside in the build up. The game was lifeless for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Clarke’s men didn’t have the guile or spark to break down the men in white.
With three wins in their past three games, confidence should have been high, but instead they seemed to have used up all their verve at the weekend.
Scotland were carved apart after 65 minutes, Hallur Hansson pinging a shot just wide.
Earlier Dykes was booked to earn a suspension for the Moldova game.