Paul Dixon felt it was important, on his international debut, to have avoided losing against Serbia yesterday in the first qualification group game for World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014. Both sides had chances to win the game and the Huddersfield defender preferred to look at the positives from the game. The left-back was a late call-up to Craig Levein's squad earlier in the week after injuries to Danny Fox, Russell Martin and Charlie Mulgrew. Serbia manager Sinisa Mihajlovic's planed to focus his side's threat down Dixon's wing and this came to light after he left his tactics sheet lying on the ground at Hampden during their training stint yesterday. The early warning of this tactic only inspired the former Dundee and Dundee United defender. Speaking after the game, he said: "I thought it was our tactic sheet at first. I just saw it (in a newspaper) over someone's shoulder at breakfast this morning and then I took a proper look at it and noticed it was theirs. So thought: 'All right, if that is what they want to do then I will show them otherwise' and I feel as though I did that. It is a dream come true, playing for my country and I've got man of the match as well so I don't think it could have gone any better other than getting the win. I was playing snooker at the training ground and our assistant manager came and told me I had been called up and I said: 'Are you joking?'. He showed me the text. It was the case of speeding home, throwing stuff in the bag and get up the road as quickly as possible and it ended in today." Obviously Dixon would have preferred to have enjoyed a win on his first start for his country, but he knows that a draw is not the end of the world. He went on: "It's a point. We've not lost which is the main thing. We made chances and in another game we might have taken those chances." Manager Craig Levein was happy with what he described as an improvement from their last game, a 3-1 friendly win over Australia last month. He said: "We were hoping to win the match, but these things happen and overall we played very well, there's been a definite progression." Captain Gary Caldwell was equally pragmatic and believes Tuesday's game against Macedonia is now a must-win. He said: "It is a point and we need to try and build on that. We've got to go out there and get three points. Macedonia are below us and we need go out and win."Images from the game can be seen on the SportPix website.
Source: FOOTYMAD
