Meet the striker who doesn't score often - but Scotland win when he does

Lyndon Dykes has his own place in the folklore of Steve Clarke's team, a shaven-headed cult hero, a striker who doesn't score very often but when he does, Scotland always win.

Dykes has scored in nine different international games - twice in one - and has won the lot. He scored the winner in four of them.

All of that goes back awhile, of course. He has only scored one international goal in three years and only scores intermittently in club football; six in 43 last season, six in 34 the season before, seven in 43 the season before that.

Clarke values him regardless. Goals or no goals, his impact is measured in other ways; physicality, personality, energy. Dykes works himself to a standstill. That's a given, every single time.

He has fetched up at the World Cup with a skinhead look. His team-mates like it that way.

"They prefer the bald Dykes, a bit more aggressive, maybe," he says, before wondering aloud if he could get the whole team to go skinhead. The one player who would put up the most resistance? "McTominay," he replied, with a smile.

Dykes made his World Cup debut off the bench on Saturday, another landmark in a sporting career that began in rugby league and Aussie Rules in his native Australia, before a relatively late switch to football and a journey that's taken him to America via Queen of the South, Livingston, Queens Park Rangers, Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic.

He's a character, a good storyteller, a man who was never more down than when missing the last Euros through injury and never more up than running into the fray at the Boston Stadium in Foxborough the other night.

He didn't play two years ago in Germany but he was still hanging around the squad at times, observing what was going on. More relaxed this time, he feels. More down days. More fun. Less intensity, until it's time for intensity.

"We seem a lot more calm," he says. "And we've got a few youngsters coming in that haven't been in the squad for long.

"The whole squad has just gelled a little bit more coming into this tournament, knowing what it's going to be. It's going to be tough. It's going to be relentless. But the experience from previous tournaments has definitely helped."

On his Germany upset: "It was ups and downs. Some days I was really happy to be with the team and other days it was a struggle being on the outskirts. Everything's not easy in life and some things just aren't meant to happen."

And now this in the States: "It's a dream come true. You take everything in. You want to enjoy it and have special memories. I'll be forever grateful. All my family back in Dumfries is proud. I would have never thought I would be in a situation like this."

Morocco, next. Big test. Scotland are the underdogs now. Is Dykes ready for a massive step-up? "I'm always ready. I always give my best and wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm ready for whatever my role is."

The charisma is hard to miss, the eloquence, the attitude, the self-belief.

"The way I've come through football, I've earned what I've got," he says. "Scottish people, in general, we're fighters. We want to go out and prove everyone wrong. We're not going to just roll over and just take it. It gives you a burning feeling in your belly.

"We can definitely get another two wins in this tournament. It's going to be difficult but I believe in myself, I believe in my team and I believe in the manager and all the fans that have travelled over as well to help us win games."

Morocco, he says, have world-class players and are a serious team. Scotland can't just sit-in and soak up their pressure. "It's not how we want to be. We want to be dangerous."

Dykes will most likely start on the bench against Morocco, but at least he's here.

Oli McBurnie and Kieron Bowie were both much-talked about in the preamble to the squad announcement, but Clarke picked Dykes ahead of them. He knows him and trusts him and the feeling is mutual.

You get the feeling that the player would do anything for the manager.

"Ever since I've come to Scotland, people have seen what I've given," Dykes says. "I'm in double figures for goals. I've been involved in making tournaments and I'm super grateful to him [Clarke].

"When I first spoke to him, he said it's not a given that you're always going to get called up, you have to make sure you prove yourself.

"I think I always do that, even if some people say I'm not scoring enough goals. I do a lot more in other aspects to help the team."

He will be called upon again on Friday in Boston, a bit-part, perhaps, but a part he will relish. Morocco won't miss him; bald and belligerent and up for the battle.