Dykes’ scrambled winner spares Scotland blushes
Another dismal first half, another galvanising address by Steve Clarke at the break and another last-gasp winning goal by a player who got credit for his intervention, even though he knew little enough about how the ball ended up in the net.
So it was against Israel at Hampden on Saturday and so it was again, this time in the Faroe Islands as Lyndon Dykes forced the ball home – or did well to get into a position where it could ricochet off him – to secure a precious victory which leaves Scotland one win away from a place in the World Cup play-offs.
“You are not always going to win in a fantastic free-flowing style, maybe as we did second half Saturday when everyone’s excited,” said Clarke. “This game was more nervous, it was about showing a different side to the team and making sure that we ground out the result. Three points is three points, the same as we got on Saturday.”
The Faroese had not scored in any of their past four meetings with Scotland and their Swedish manager, Hakan Ericson, said beforehand that if they were to prevail “it would be a little bit of a fiasco’”. By half-time the Scots, like the sodden Tartan Army amongst the crowd in Torshavn, had cause to fear that a fiasco was a live prospect.
Certainly, the artificial surface militated against Scottish attempts to impose a passing game on their opponents, but Ericson’s men did not seem unduly troubled by the conditions and Joan Edmundsson had a sight of goal but undercooked his shot and the move petered out with an offside flag.
Most of Scotland’s menace was delivered by Scott Mctominay, first with an angled drive, beaten away by Teitur Gestsson, then with a free kick which he blazed well wide.
In the last move before the interval, Kieran Tierney and Dykes combined to give Mctominay a shot which was only narrowly high.
An undeniable sense of forebod- ing emanated from the Scots as they made their way to the dressing rooms for what was bound to be a raw response from Clarke. The upshot was immediately evident from the restart as Scotland played at a much faster pace.
Almost immediately it seemed that they had won a penalty when Ryan Christie was taken down by Heini Vatnsdal, but a Var check revealed he had been fractionally offside just before he was tripped.
Scotland’s pressure became relentless, but it was a switch by Clarke which tipped the balance in their favour. He removed the tiring Ryan Fraser and sent Nathan Patterson out with instructions to drive crosses into the box. With four minutes left, the Rangers full-back did exactly that. The ball appeared to clip a defender and spun off Dykes into the net. A Var check hushed the celebrations until, at last, the goal was allowed and Dykes was able to celebrate his fourth goal in as many World Cup qualifiers.
The QPR striker will not be available for next month’s trip to Moldova because, like Christie, he was cautioned but it is surely about time that his colleagues bore some of the goal-scoring burden themselves.
“We have put ourselves in a really good position – now we have to make sure that next month we finish the job,” said Clarke.
Faroe Islands (3-4-3) Gestsson; Faero, Vatnsdal (Askham 59), Nattestad; Rolantsson; G Vatnhamar, Hendriksson, Davidsen (Knudsen 59); Hansson (Frederiksen 90+1), Edmundsson (Andrasson Olsen 90+5), Jonsson. Subs Nielsen (g), Lamhauge (g), Danielsen, Bjartalid, S Vatnhamar, Jensen, Agnarsson. Booked Hendriksson Olsen.
Scotland (3-4-1-2) Gordon; Hendry (Mcgregor 68), Hanley, Tierney; Fraser (Patterson 83), Mctominay, Gilmour (Cooper 90), Robertson; Mcginn; Christie (Nisbet 83), Dykes. Subs Mclaughlin (g), Kelly (g), O’donnell, Ferguson, Armstrong, Turnbull, Mclean. Booked Christie, Dykes, Hanley, Mctominay.
Referee Matej Jug (Slovenia).