Rhodes revels in Scotland bow

Jordan Rhodes: Delighted to be part of Scotland's 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign

Jordan Rhodes has expressed his delight at making his competitive debut for Scotland and is looking to take positives from a 0-0 draw with Serbia.

The Blackburn new boy, who completed an £8million switch to Ewood Park from Huddersfield over the summer, was handed nine minutes at Hampden Park on Saturday.

Those in attendance were calling for his introduction long before it arrived, with Rhodes' goal-scoring exploits at club level having seen him drafted into Craig Levein's plans.

The 22-year-old striker is delighted to be involved in international competition and claims being restricted to a cameo appearance on a frustrating afternoon will take none of the shine off what was a special day for him.

Exciting

"It was fantastic just to go out there," said Rhodes, who netted on his first start for Scotland in a friendly victory over Australia in August.

"It was a dream come true to go out there and step out in front of those fans at a World Cup campaign. It was every exciting and it doesn't get much more exciting than that."

He added: "It is always difficult as a sub to go on because you are never up to the pace of the game.

"I just tried to run about and give it my all and try to close their back four down and force them into little mistakes here and there, and maybe I did once or twice, and as a sub you try to do as best as you can."

It is being suggested that a goalless draw on home soil has made a meeting with Macedonia on Tuesday a must-win game for Scotland - just two fixtures into 2014 World Cup qualifying.

Solid

Rhodes refuses to buy into that belief and feels Levein's men should enter an important midweek encounter in positive mood.

"I am not sure I am the man to speak about the situation, it is all very new to me, I am just happy to be here," he said.

"I presume that will be a very good result against a very tough team on the day.

"They were very good, solid and tough to break down at times, so I thought it was a good performance and sets us up quite nicely going into the game on Tuesday.

"We will try our best and do what we can and hopefully that is good enough on the night."