Scotland boss Steve Clarke has praised the impact of substitute duo Lyndon Dykes and Ryan Fraser in the Nations League victory over Ukraine. The Newcastle United winger came off the bench to deliver two assists for the QPR striker in the 3-0 victory at Hampden Park on Wednesday night.
It was Fraser's first appearance for his country in almost a year, having been overlooked for two squads following his controversial decision to withdraw from international duty last November. The former Bournemouth star had cited a calf injury, only to be pictured in training with the Magpies at the club's Benton base.
Fraser apologised for the incident, and Clarke was forced to bat away questions over the winger's commitment to his country ahead of the latest round of Nations League fixtures. The Newcastle star was introduced in place of Stuart Armstrong in the 76th minute, and registered two late set-piece assists with Dykes converting both.
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Clarke was obviously pleased with the impact of his substitutes and their response to being left out of the starting lineup. He told reporters: “It was nice for the two substitutes Ryan and Lyndon to come off the bench and make the scoreline better.
“It is credit to the players. I would say both of them probably had the hump with the head coach that they didn’t start the game but that’s what you want, you want a hungry group.”
It had been shaping up to be another frustrating evening for Scotland, with the hosts spurning several opportunities against the same side who had knocked them out of the World Cup qualification playoff. However, John McGinn opened the scoring with 20 minutes to go and Clarke was confident his team would find the breakthrough.
He added: "When you are on the sidelines and you are watching and your team is creating chances, you know your team has good forward momentum, you are just waiting. You are actually expecting one of them to go in because you are creating so many good chances that you believe in your players and trust them to get the goal and that’s what happened.
“It was a good performance and we are really pleased with it. Congratulations to the players, we give them a lot of information in a short pace of time, most of it boring.
“Walk-throughs on the pitch, meetings in the meeting room, but we took it on board, executed what we wanted to do well. It was a good game. We got on top of the second half and the first goal was always going to be crucial."
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