RYAN Christie believes there is “no turning back” from his new position at Cherries, sharing that he was “loving it”.

Although signed from Celtic in 2021 as an attacking midfielder, Christie has excelled this season in a deeper role under Andoni Iraola.

The Scottish midfielder has been ever-present for Cherries in the Premier League, featuring in all 28 of their league fixtures this term.

And Christie believes consistent game time at club level will help his international ambitions with Scotland.

Christie explained: “It’s been strange (playing deep).

“It came around because of an injury crisis, but I don’t think there’s any turning back.

“It might be the classic getting deeper as you get older. But I’m loving it.

“The manager at club level has been amazing with me and I’ve managed to play a lot of games this season and gain a bit of consistency.

“It was a different position the other night but when it comes to Scotland, but I’m happy to play anywhere.

“I don’t think it’s just me who’s playing well.

"A few boys in the squad are flying right now.

"Hopefully that continues between now and the summer.

"If you can keep up the club form you will go to Germany feeling good.”

A 4-0 loss to the Netherlands last time out mean that Scotland are now winless in six internationals, but Christie believes he and his country are taking vital learnings ahead of this summer’s trip to Germany for the Euros.

The Scots will hope to snap their winless run when they face Northern Ireland in Glasgow on Tuesday night.

He continued: “It’s a good lesson and obviously it’s handy to learn this lesson now in a friendly game that doesn’t mean anything.

“And obviously we’re going to start the Euros against a team of similar quality in Germany, so you can’t let that happen or you’re almost out of the tournament after one game.

“So it’s good to learn that lesson now.

"Now we’re going into Tuesday night and hopefully we can get a positive result and then get back on the winning train again.

“The gaffer (Steve Clarke) does well to kind of lift us back up – he also keeps us very grounded when things are going our way – and he’s very honest with all of us as a bunch of boys, as a squad.

“I’m sure we’ll go over the game, analyse what was good, what was bad, work on it and take it into Tuesday night.

“We are desperate to get on the winning train again, especially at Hampden, so it’s a big night on Tuesday.

"Everybody will be looking forward to playing their part and hopefully get back to winning ways and then onto the summer.”