The verdict on Graeme Shinnie was scathing. Delivered with brutal honesty by Graeme Shinnie. After the most harrowing experience of his professional life and in a soul-baring exercise, the Aberdeen captain did not wait around to discover how deep pundits were plunging in the knife.
He faced up to the reality and shouldered responsibility, admitting there will be no way back into the national team following his personal nightmare on Thursday in Kazakhstan.
That his Scotland career was effectively over following the humiliation of being culpable for goals contributing to one of the worst results in the country's history.
Graeme Shinnie admitted there will be no way back into the national team after defeat
Paul Ritchie has been that broken man. He recognises precisely what Shinnie was enduring in the Astana Arena.
When reading the 27-year-old's post-match judgment and searing self-analysis, Ritchie's haunted mind shot back to the night when he recognised he would never make another appearance for Scotland.
The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, was the setting for Ritchie's seventh and final cap in February 2004.
Playing his club football with Walsall at the time, he began the day as a late replacement for Steven Pressley - and ended it an emotional wreck, sitting alone with his thoughts on an SFA bus returning to Glasgow from the Welsh capital.
He alighted at Knutsford, to his home in Cheshire, inconsolable at being at fault for goals in a crushing 4-0 friendly defeat.
'I know how Graeme Shinnie is feeling,' said Ritchie. 'It's the worst feeling ever.
'The defeat in Kazakhstan was the worst Scotland result ever and, before that match, I was responsible for the previous worst result.
'It will hurt him for weeks. The Scottish public and media can be very unforgiving because the national team means so much to so many people.
'I can't remember who was on the bus back from Cardiff that night but no one went out of their way to speak to me. It felt like the longest journey ever.' As in the loss in Kazakhstan, there was an unfamiliar look to the centre of defence for Berti Vogts as Ritchie partnered Steven Caldwell.
Licking his lips was Cardiff speed merchant Robert Earnshaw, aided by Ryan Giggs and Gary Speed. Earnshaw scored after 44 seconds, seizing on a Ritchie slip.
The Welsh striker burned Ritchie and Caldwell for speed to guide in a second goal just after half an hour. Ritchie's suffering lasted the entire game before Wales declared on four.
'I wasn't supposed to be playing,' recalls the former Hearts favourite. 'I was there as back-up but then Elvis suffered an injury the day before.
'If you don't start the game properly, then it has a snowball effect. You can have positive thoughts in your head, then one mistake and it's gone.
'You try to rectify it, then suddenly something else goes wrong.
'I went to control the ball in the first minute, it ran away from me. Earnshaw picked it up and scored. I'd played against him before in the Championship and
