Scotland's next 50-cap man backs January decision to boost World Cup aim

Dykes, 30, started just two of Scotland’s six games during the qualifying phase, but was handed a starting berth as the national team began their preparations for the tournament with a 1-0 defeat to Japan at Hampden Park on Saturday night.

Missing out on the European Championships two summers ago due to an ankle injury, Dykes is even more determined to make sure he is amongst the manager’s 26-man squad in June. After registering seven goal contributions in his first 13 appearances for his new side, the forward is proving his decision to leave Birmingham City on transfer deadline day could pay dividends this summer.

“I feel good,” said Dykes. “I’m enjoying it at Charlton. I went there in January. I wanted more game time, and that was the main focus. I have signed there until the summer, but I’m just really enjoying my football at the minute. Feeling fit, feeling strong, and it’s always great to come back with the boys in Scotland, especially after what we’ve achieved.

“Obviously, we are disappointed [with the result against Japan]. We want to keep winning games and maintain that momentum. Japan are a good side. We are a little disappointed with our attacking performance; we didn’t create many opportunities, but we can’t be perfect all the time. We now have to focus on the next game. There’s not a lot in the game; they’re a quality side, but we wanted to make a bit more of an impact than we did.

“We need to make sure we learn from games like this tonight. It wasn’t perfect, but you can always take something away from these things, and that’s the main focus to make sure when the games come along that we have to win, we win them.”

The Scotland squad will now head to Everton FC’s Hill Dickinson Stadium to face the Ivory Coast on Tuesday night in their second pre-tournament friendly. Dykes, who could earn his 50th cap in the game, says the squad already know what they want to improve on in Merseyside as they face Emerse Fae’s side.

“He [Steve Clarke] wanted to change a few things,” said Dykes. “I’m sure he’ll use a lot of the squad on Tuesday; this is the time to do that. Seeing a lot of boys coming in, fresh faces, trying new things out. We worked on a few things during the week, but we didn’t execute them how we wanted to - some things we did, some things we didn’t. But that’s the joy of having these friendlies when you’ve already qualified. As you saw the other night with other nations, it was nice to sit back and not have to stress.

“We didn’t have an awful lot of chances tonight. Scotty [McTominay] obviously had that chance at the start. Ultimately, you examine the defensive side first and then the attacking side. We need to pose a greater threat, and I think we can pose a greater threat than we did tonight.

“It feels like we haven’t been together for a while, so it has been really nice; the week has gone really quickly. We’ve got the game on Tuesday, and then it is back to Charlton, where I’ll hopefully finish the season strong and see what happens in the summer.”

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