LYNDON Dykes tonight insisted that Scotland can take positives from their second half fightback against Poland and and targeted a result against Portugal despite the Nations League defeat they suffered at Hampden.
Birmingham City striker Dykes was devastated when Nicola Zalewski netted a penalty in the seventh minute of injury-time to give the visitors a 3-2 triumph in the Group A1 match.
He had helped Steve Clarke’s men, who fell 2-0 down before half-time, to level the match in the second half thanks to well-worked goals from Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay and felt they deserved a result.
But the Australia-born internationalist is confident that Scotland can bounce back from the painful reverse in Lisbon in Sunday if they cut out their sloppy mistakes at the back and convert their opportunities up front.
“We thought we were the better team tonight,” he said. “We worked really hard to get back into the game, started the second half very well. We are just frustrated tonight obviously with the way it went.
“We can't be conceding that many goals. It makes it much more difficult for us as a team. But we've got another game coming up soon, so we can bounce back quick and make sure we're on it on Sunday. “That's international football, you're playing top level. We were definitely the better team in the first half and they scored two, but that's football.
“We're losing 2-0. Probably a lot of people thought it was over. We came back 2-2. We could have easily won it again. We didn't, but still to come back from two goals the way we did, we were looking dominant the whole game. We were playing well. “So it's definitely in there. I'm fully confident in my team. My team mates have everybody’s backs. I'll run for a brick wall for them and I'm sure they'll do the same for me. So going forward, we're going to be all right.
“I think we did look dangerous on the attack. But we can't just score on goals and keep conceding as well. It's just one of those nights we have to dust ourselves off and move on. It's the first game. There's lots of positives in there we have to take away. It's the first game, we have to make sure we take the positives instead of the negatives.”
Dykes felt the tweaks which Clarke had implemented in training at Lesser Hampden this week helped Scotland to produce a better performance than they did in the Euro 2024 finals in Germany this summer.
“There's been a few changes on the training pitch and obviously new faces as well,” he said. “We've been working on a lot of things. I think tonight you can see we're trying to press high and be the dominant team on the ball and try and make chances and we've done all that. It's just not our night tonight and like I said, we have to turn it around for Sunday.
“The manager made good attacking subs and at that point we scored the second one. Then the game was kind of end-to-end. You've seen a few tired legs out there. Their third goal obviously was disappointing, but that's football.
“We're all in it together, we're all team mates. We have to make sure we bounce back on Sunday and put this one behind us because it was a good performance. But there were mistakes in there. Individually, that was the point that made us lose the game tonight."
Dykes missed the Euros after suffering an injury in training before Scotland flew out to Germany and he admitted that he was pleased to be involved in the national set-up once again despite the final outcome.
“It was nice to be back,” he said. “It was really good to be out there. Before the kick-off, I was just having a look around. It was just nice to be back. Disappointed about it somehow, but it is what it is. Now I just want to get back to winning games for Scotland and hopefully that's Sunday.
“It's not nice to hear that we haven’t won a competitive game in over a year, but there's been good performances in there like tonight. But again, obviously we conceded three goals which made us lose. We just need to go back to basics. We're a good team. We got to these places because of the players that we have. “We've still got the majority of the core in this team still here, so we know what we're capable of. We just have to go back to the basics and stick together and be a family like what we are. I'm sure the results come again. Football isn't always easy sailing.”
