RYAN CHRISTIE didn’t need to be told what he had done.
Trouble is, these days the world can’t wait to do just that — and in the most vicious way imaginable.
Celtic’s gifted midfielder was barely down the Spaghettihad tunnel when the abuse started pinging and he became Twitter’s public enemy No 1.
It would be a day that taught him two crucial life lessons.
Always control your aggression. And don’t give the trolls another ounce of oxygen.
Christie admits he just wanted to hide after the red card shame that played a huge part in his team’s shock 2-0 loss at Livi last Sunday.
But he’s now glad to have got away with Scotland, even if it meant being part of a 4-0 hiding in Moscow on Thursday night.
He said: “There was a good side and a bad side to the international break coming up after last weekend.
“At one point after being sent off, I just wanted to bury my head in the sand.
“But then, it was also nice that the suspension didn’t count for the Scotland games and I could get a chance to bounce back.
“As my club gaffer has already said, that’s the most important thing at a time like this — how you bounce back and how you learn from it.
“You need to find the line between controlled aggression and going over the top.
“Hopefully I will, but I’m over what happened now and it helped getting back on to the park in Russia, even though the result wasn’t what we wanted.
“As for the other side of it, the social media, for me I think it’s best just to call it a day.
“I don’t have the Twitter app, but even if you are not on it there’s still a kind of word of mouth thing. Your friends and other people can’t help but show what this person and that person has said.
“If you’re looking at it at all, it’s basically impossible to stay away from the negative stuff. It always gets back to you.
“Sites like Instagram are better in a way because you can set it so you can’t really see these sorts of things, but Twitter’s hard.
“As soon as someone mentions you, it’s straight onto your timeline and everyone’s into it.
“At the end of the day, I’ve realised it’s maybe just a platform for people to come at you and the quicker you get rid of it the better.”
If only you could log out of the kind of night Scotland had against the Russians on Thursday.
Four-nil defeat? Block, hide notifications. Delete account.
‘NO COMPLAINTS’ Ryan Christie admits his Livingston red card was a SHOCKER
Some chance. Out there, in the middle of the frenzied Luzhniki Stadium with the home side in full flow and our lot falling apart, there was nowhere to hide.
Not the best time for anyone to get the shout from the gaffer to go on and try to turn it all around as Christie did deep in that awful second half.
He said: “Is it hurtful? Yes, for a number of reasons.
“I don’t like to use a word like embarrassing, but that’s what it feels like, especially towards the end when they were in complete control.
“It’s also embarrassing for the gaffer, who’s worked so hard for us and, we feel, has been drilling us really well for the game.
“We’re probably letting him down in games right now.
“But it’s important for us to go again. It was tough on Thursday, but we need to go out and put in a good performance against San Marino on Sunday.
“We need to stop this run of defeats and get a win. If we can win convincingly, even better.
“Hopefully, things will come back a bit and get that belief back again.
“We want to end the trip on a high and look to get two wins over Cyprus and Kazakhstan in November.
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“Russia are a good side and we got punished. I don’t know if it was inexperience or what, but it was obviously a harsh lesson we need to learn from quickly.
“It is so frustrating, because we do want to build a bit of momentum.
“We’ve all been talking before Moscow about the last four games in the group and building things up.
“All week we worked to come up with a game plan and everyone felt good again.
“We looked as though we could bring a result home and then 57 minutes in we lose a goal.
“It’s strange because we felt good until then. They created a bit in the first half, but we came out and got a foothold in the game.
“That’s just when you need to keep your concentration at its highest and again it’s a set-piece.
“Let’s just say the gaffer was frustrated about that — and we need to learn quickly.”