England striker Eniola Aluko received a lot of stick on Twitter following the 1-1 World Cup draw against Mexico. The 24-year-old, who missed a hat-trick of second half chances, angrily responded to some of the tweets.
"It's part of the game but I don't particularly like negativity being directed at me, I think some people go a bit far," she told BBC Sport.
"It is quite poisonous and does affect me."
Aluko, a law graduate who plays her club football for the American team Sky Blue, has scored 11 goals in 56 international appearances, including three in the European Championship two years ago.
"When I'm in a World Cup you need to keep a positive frame of mind and head onto the next game," she added.
"I don't need poison being directed at me so there's a time when I might say something back.
"I'm a human being. If someone walked up to me and said something I think is out of order and not objective I might respond.
"I'm very passionate so there are times when I might have to tell people to save your negativity for somebody else. I don't need it right now".
But Aluko is determined not to dwell on the opportunities she failed to take against the Mexicans in Wolfsburg.
"I'm not going to beat myself up over the chances I missed. The best strikers in the world miss as well as score," she said.
"I might get two goals in the next game and I'm a hero. The main thing is getting into those positions. I was disappointed not to put one of those chances away but it happens.
"It's sometimes difficult to understand why people don't get behind the team - they're so quick to jump on the bandwagon and criticise - just get behind us.
"It feels like people love the negativity - I'm not interested in people who've probably never kicked a ball in their lives."
But despite the criticism, Nigerian-born Aluko says she will not be doing the same.
"I don't need to get off Twitter - a lot of these people hide behind their computers and make comments and yet they're the same people asking for your autograph, so it's not a big deal," she added.
"I responded to two people and I saw about 15 comments so there's a lot of people I ignored too which takes a lot.
"I find it annoying. I've now changed my phone so I don't get notifications so it's up to me whether I see it or not."
