Scottish football fans may well have sat alone in darkened rooms amid self-imposed TV blackouts during the summer of 2016, while their four British Isles neighbours trotted off to a major tournament. At the time, the notion of a semi-pro Australian striker – most recently playing for a club called Surfers Paradise Apollo – helping them end two decades of misery seemed almost comical.
But that was the summer Lyndon Dykes’ life changed forever. In joining Queen of the South, the 20-year-old returned to his parents’ homeland and finally began his professional career. Five years later, he has rocketed onto the international scene.
It’s been a wild ride for Dykes in the past 12 months alone since he joined QPR for £2 million, but the Queensland native is only too happy to strap in and hold on. Not bad for a lad whose dreams had centred around a different shaped ball completely...
How have you found your first season in England? You ended it on fire...
It’s been very good. When I first came down it was just hectic – I went from zero to 100 so quickly, moving to London, sorting the family out and playing international football for the first time days later. Going into the Championship was a big ask, but I’ve loved every minute. I don’t really base my game on goals, because I think I bring a lot more to the table. Not that I don’t want to score, obviously! I’ve been trying to find my bearings a bit, but towards the end I was putting in some good performances and scoring goals. Sometimes, it can feel like everything is goingin as a striker.
You weren’t a big football fan growing up. How did you see the light?
I grew up in Australia, and everyone knows football isn’t as big there. My family is quite athletic, so I’d play anything, but my main sport as a kid was rugby league. I played it alongside football for a while, then got to the age where I had to choose. In my mind, I actually went with rugby league. But then I moved to the Gold Coast with my mum, where my uncle lives. One day he signed me up without me really having a word in it, and that was it – I met my friends and stuck with it. I was a bit of a latecomer, but just tried to get stuck in there...
You first joined Queen of the South in 2014, as a teenager. How did that come about?
Both of my parents were born in Scotland, in Dumfries, but moved to Australia more than 30 years ago for a new experience. I’ve still got a lot of family there, so when I was on an Australian schoolboys tour of England, I went to see them afterwards and ended up training with Queen of the South’s under-20 side. I pretty much had a full season there playing full-time football, but went back to Australia and eventually found a job, only playing for fun again.
[FFT: What kind of job did you do?] A few! I was just budging my way through, really. [Laughs] I put up glass fences around pools, a bit of painting – but the job I worked at longest was for a sports company called BLK, in the factory. That was 9-5 doing heat sealing, putting numbers and badges on products... whatever came in.
Was the plan always to return to Scotland?
No, at that time I just wanted to play with my mates and have fun. Eventually, I realised that working 9-5 wasn’t what I wanted, then luckily enough I got a call from someone at Queen of the South. My mentality became completely different – I wanted to go there and give absolutely everything. Coming back to Scotland really pushed me to where I am today. It was a major factor in me choosing to play for them internationally – I wouldn’t be here without them.
Did you have a Scottish upbringing?
Neither of my parents ever lost their strong accents. My friends would come over and couldn’t understand them. Australia is very multicultural and my high school teacher was Scottish as well – a massive Rangers fan, and the captain of my weekend team.
At what point did representing Scotland become a serious proposition?
I was playing at Livingston and Australia’s assistant manager, Rene Meulensteen, came to watch me play against Celtic. I spoke with him, but pretty much the same week, Steve Clarke got in touch as well. Then everything stopped for the first lockdown. They were both good with me and told me to take my time – I didn’t think international football would happen to me, so it’s surreal when people are calling you and coming to watch. I met Rene and spoke to [Australia coach] Graham Arnold – we kept in contact during lockdown. But in the end I just went with my heart and my gut, and I chose Scotland.
Your sister scooped two gymnastic gold medals during the 2006 Commonwealth Games for Australia. What did she think?
My situation was slightly different. My family would have been proud whatever I picked. I went with what I felt was right – I wanted to give back to Scotland what they gave me.
Tell us about your debut against Israel in September, then scoring your first goal three days later against the Czechs...
It was kind of weird. Everything was going crazy in the world and I’d recently joined QPR. The next minute I was rocking up to the Scotland camp training with all these great players. I was buzzing and felt like I fitted in really well – it was like I’d been with the guys for years. I made my debut at Hampden Park. It was such a shame that fans weren’t there, because it would have been a whole different experience – instead I walked out to dead silence!
I was nervous and wanted to show everybody what I could do, but just gave it 100 per cent. Luckily, the second game I got my goal and we won after coming from 1-0 down very early on. I’ll never forget those moments. Thankfully, I remembered the words to Flower of Scotland from my parents – growing up with them while the rugby was on television, plus my teacher. So I wasn’t too bad going in!
You started that fateful play-off against Serbia, coming off after 83 minutes with Scotland 1-0 up. Then things got hairy...
That game will be iconic in Scotland for years. We’d been on a good run before that, and I had this feeling that we weren’t going to lose any games. It was a nervous match, but I felt relaxed. We shook Serbia – I don’t think they expected us to press so high and give them a fight. I came off with about 10 minutes left, and it seemed like I was off the pitch for about an hour trying to watch the rest of it. If I had hair at the time, it definitely would have been falling out. When Big Marsh [goalkeeper David Marshall] saved that last penalty, it was all a big blur from there – I hit my top speed sprinting across that pitch!
John McGinn told us he’s collecting the Scotland Panini stickers. Are you?
Yeah, I have two books full already. I started collecting them, but then discovered a way to order them online. I just cheated! I’ve got my little son and step-kids, though, so when they’re older it’s something they can look at.
How much stick do you get in the squad for being an Aussie?
I always get plenty of that, don’t worry. The lads haven’t really got me a nickname, but I’m always hearing, “You’re not even Scottish – what are you on about?!” But don’t let the accent fool you – my blood is Scottish and all of my family is. I just need to get rid of this accent and I’ll be fine...
What can we expect from Scotland at Euro 2020? What are you looking forward to?
You can expect a hard-working team. A lot of people write us off, but we come in as the underdogs and don’t really care what people say. I think loads of people will write us off in the future, too. With the team we have, we simply need to do our own thing: we’ve got great guys, some world-class players in our team, and need to play with the mentality that we can beat anyone on our day. It’s all a new experience to me, playing at a major tournament, so that’s going to be exciting – I want to show what I can do.
You’ve been bleach-blond recently, having donned multi-coloured hair at Livingston. Any special ’do planned for the Euros, and the England game in particular?
I’m not quite sure at the moment. [Laughs] I’m a bit crazy with my hair, but don’t really plan it – I can be sat at home at 9pm, then 20 minutes later cutting it all off or getting it dyed. It could be wild for the Euros, it might not be – we’ll have to see. [FFT: The Scotland flag, surely?] We may have to get some blue in there somewhere, yeah...
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