SCOTLAND striker Lyndon Dykes tonight admitted the first-half penalty that had secured a vital 1-0 win over Austria in a Qatar 2022 qualifier in Vienna had not been his finest strike.
The national team were awarded a spot kick in the Ernst-Happel Stadion after Bulgarian referee Georgi Kabakov consulted the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) on the half hour mark.
Kabakov ruled that Martin Hinteregger had hauled down Che Adams inside his own area after watching a replay of the incident on a pitchside monitor.
Dykes revealed it was the first time he had ever been awarded a penalty by VAR and had not struck his effort from 12 yards well.
But the Australian-born forward, who had scored the winner in the 1-0 triumph over Modlova at Hampden on Saturday, was just delighted to have contributed to the triumph.
“I was aiming for where it went,” he said. “I was just happy to see it go in the back of the net. It wasn’t one of my best ones. But it hit the net and it was 1-0 at the end of the night so I will take it.
“From my angle I was behind Che and it looked like he was grabbing him a lot. These days you don’t have to claim for much because VAR is there to get the decisions.
“The ref went to the screen and that’s the first time I’ve got rewarded from VAR and I think it was the right decision. It was a good goal.”
Dykes added: “It was a massive win. We came here to win the game and we did that and we should be proud. Now we can go back to our clubs and focus on the points coming up.
“We are a tight group. You saw that in the past when we played Serbia to get to the Euros. Each camp we have got stronger and stronger. It was tough but we held out and we won and that showed the togetherness that we have got.That’s something we want to build on.
“We defended from the front. We defend as a team. We work hard together. They are a really good side with great players and it was good to get the goal and go one up. We held on from there. We had a couple of other chances, but one was enough. It was a good night.”
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