Russell Martin's season is finally over – although it was a painful finale for the Norwich City skipper.

Martin left the field nursing a bloody nose as Scotland claimed a point from a 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin to strengthen their European Championship qualifying claims.

The 29-year-old was on the receiving end of a first-half forearm from James McCarthy which somehow went unpunished.

'It was a sore one when McCarthy caught me,' said Martin, who was playing on the opposite side to team-mate Wes Hoolahan. 'I don't know what part of his arm he hit me with but he's apologised to me for it. At half-time and after the game he came over and said sorry.

'I think even he thought it was a red card. But the referee only deemed it a yellow so who am I to argue?

'I was really angry at the time. When you see a bit of claret coming down you're not too happy.

'Our medical team are great but when I was off the pitch we were just praying that it wouldn't come to anything. Fortunately it didn't, although a few minutes later we conceded the corner for the goal and that was disappointing.

'But we stood up to their physical strength quite well all night and deserved a draw.'