RUSSELL Martin emerged from the Aviva Stadium with a souvenir to remember his trip to Dublin by.

The Norwich centre half wore a butterfly clip across the bridge of his nose and it wasn't the only war wound being sported by a Scotland player after this bruising Group D encounter.

He then admitted that even James McCarthy, the man who inflicted the aforementioned injury, had felt he was going to be sent off by Italian Nicola Rizzoli for the incident, although the former Hamilton man did at least have the good grace to apologise for leading with his arm in an aerial challenge and catching him flush on the nose with the point of his elbow.

"It was a sore one," said Martin. "I don't what part of his arm he hit me with but he's apologised to me for it. At half-time and after the game he came over and said sorry.

"I think even he thought it was a red card," he added. "But the referee only deemed it a yellow so who am I to argue? I was really angry at the time. When you see a bit of claret coming down you're not too happy."

Rather than the Republic going down to ten, instead it was Scotland who ended up a man down, as the Scottish medical team frantically patched their centre half up. Indeed it was only when Martin got back on that David Marshall's goal was breached, by a suspiciously offside-looking Jon Walters.

"We found out at half-time that the goal was offside," he said. "I thought it at the time so it was disappointing. So a draw is the least we deserved. I can't remember them having too many chances."

This wasn't always pretty but it was still a titanic display from the Norwich City player and the rest of Scotland's makeshift backline. And this point, achieved from a goal down, courtesy of a Shaun Maloney effort which flicked off John O'Shea, could yet go a long way to taking Scotland back to a major finals after an 18-year absence.

"Potentially that's a very big point for us," said Martin. "I think any draw away from home in this group is a good one but this one is especially, knowing how much it meant to them. It was a must-win for them and we didn't start particularly great.

"But I thought we stood up to their physical strength quite well all night," he added. "The way they played was even more route one than in Glasgow. Charlie [Mulgrew's] calves were cramping up near the end having not played a lot of games but he was brilliant.

"We showed a lot of character to come back. Especially when you consider we were a goal down, up against this atmosphere in Ireland. But in the second half we were brilliant and we'll take a lot of positives from it."

Scotland can enjoy their summer and look forward to a double header against Georgia in Tbilisi and Germany at Hampden. "It doesn't get any easier, that's for sure," he said. "But we've got a bit of time between now and then and we're happy with our year's work. If we go and win in Georgia, we'll be nearly there."