Scott Brown was not a happy man on Monday night.
The Scottish midfielder is not one to shy away from a fiery exchange on a football pitch but he did well to keep his cool if there is truth to his accusations of spitting against a Malta player following their World Cup Qualifier.
Scotland had just registered a 2-0 victory at Hampden Park, with Christophe Berra and Leigh Griffiths finding the net for Gordon Strachan’s side, when Brown spoke to the media and revealed that he’d been spat on by defender Steven Borg.
And he wasn’t shy about offering his thoughts on the matter.
“He did spit on me, he is a horrible bastard,” Brown said.
“He put his hand up to apologise but I managed to keep my head.
“He is a horrible bastard but the main thing was getting the three points. Getting the win was the main thing, it was about the team – not about one person or bookings or anything like that.”
Had Brown been booked for retaliating, he would have been suspended for next month’s crucial clash with Slovakia and, who knows, maybe if he hadn’t been in such a precarious position in relation to yellow cards then Borg would have been made to regret his alleged actions.
