Scotland striker Lyndon Dykes in actionAs soon as he came off the pitch it was probably the first thing Lyndon Dykes thought about.
So much so, when he sat in the dug-out after putting in a tireless shift up front for Scotland – he almost immediately watched it back.
The big striker wanted a re-run of THAT chance which could have turned a good night for Steve Clarke’s men into a brilliant one in Copenhagen.
Dykes played well against Denmark in our goalless World Cup qualifying opener on Friday, which got the Group C campaign off to a steady start.
The Birmingham City forward was given a vote of confidence by Clarke who picked him alongside Che Adams in attack.
That pair had fed off scraps for most of the night in a tight game but midway through the second half, Dykes was presented with an opportunity to score a priceless goal.
After a terrific move down the right flank, involving Aaron Hickey and John McGinn – Adams slid a ball across for his partner which looked perfect to strike with his right-foot.
But Dykes, who hasn’t scored a Scotland goal for two years – and 13 games – hesitated, took a touch and eventually his effort was blocked by the backtracking Rasmus Kristensen.
The miss didn’t overshadow an impressive display from the 29-year-old.
But afterwards, he knew he should have done better. He knew he had to take it early.
Outsiders will look at it and say he lacked confidence in that moment, due to his recent dry patch in front of goal.
But as much as Dykes expected more of himself – he’s adamant it WASN’T down to a lack of belief.
He said: “I’m obviously disappointed with the chance.
“Look, I probably should have hit it first time.
“But by the time I realised someone was so close to me, I had decided to take the touch.
“I’ve got to look back on what I could have done better and then move on.
“Football is not perfect. We had a couple of other chances we could have done better with. Denmark had a couple as well.
“Looking back, I probably should have hit it but it is what it is.
“Is it a confidence thing? Not really. I think I did quite well in the game otherwise.
“The game went so fast on Friday night. I genuinely didn’t realise the guy (Kristensen) was so close to me.
“The ball is travelling, he is sprinting back and I kind of missed my chance.
“I was unlucky for it not to skim through his legs and go bottom corner – but people aren’t saying that.
“I actually looked at it when I came off at the end of the game.
“But you can’t score every chance so you have to keep trying.
“You can’t dwell on it too much so it’s on to the next game now.
“We had a great performance as a team and still got a great point.
“But if I was a bit more clinical then we could have won the game.”
Lyndon Dykes has massive Scotland chance against Denmark The Scots’ display in Denmark felt like a bit of a throwback from Clarke and his team.
His line-up raised a few eyebrows before kick-off as the gaffer went with a traditional 4-4-2 formation, including Dykes and Adams up front as a twin strike force.
Their presence allowed Scotland to get up the pitch at times when they were under pressure from the Danes.
Whether it’s something the manager will stick with for the rest of the campaign is up for debate.
But Dykes is adamant that the system can help the team moving forward.
He said: “It can be difficult when you are playing big teams and you have to defend.
“So you often play one up front and it’s tough.
“Going with two up front on Friday helped us. Myself and Che can work with each other and make it a little bit harder for their defenders.
“It probably helped when we had a counter attack with their defenders having two players to focus on rather than just one.
“Again, that’s the manager maybe seeing a weakness in them and coming up with what he thought would work better on the night.
“Playing with Che is something I’ve done before and we have a great connection.”
With a point on the board – from arguably the toughest tie in the section – Scotland can make it four by seeing off minnows Belarus in Hungary on Monday night.
Dykes is convinced the draw in Copenhagen is a far better result for Clarke’s side than it is for the Danes.
And if they can follow it up with a victory in the second game, it would set them up perfectly for a Hampden double-header against Greece and Belarus next month.
Dykes said: “We dug in really well the other night. We obviously knew it was going to be difficult but we turned in a great performance and defended well.
“It could have been three points – but it might also have been zero points.
“If we can now go and win against Belarus on Monday, it will be a really good start to the campaign.
“The draw suits us more than Denmark, I would say because we were the away team.
“It’s quite a hard place to play so we should be proud of our performance. I think everyone on the pitch did really well.
“We had a couple of chances but so did they so we have to take the positives.”
Dykes remains a Birmingham City player, despite being close to a Scotland return with Hibs in January.
And the Australian-born front-man admits he was gutted not to make the move to Easter Road.
He said: “There were obviously talks. I’m still a Birmingham player but there were definitely talks about me coming back to Scotland on a loan move.
“It didn’t quite happen which is unfortunate but that’s just the way football is.”