“AN eventful afternoon,” was how Ryan Christie described his part in Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s victory over Aberdeen. It wasn’t half. The sight of the forward clutching the man-of-the-match champagne signified just how influential he had been as John Hughes’ side stretched their recent unbeaten run to five matches. In doing so they also inflicted a first league defeat of the season on Aberdeen whose only good fortune on the day was to learn that Celtic had failed to fully capitalise on their slip-up by only drawing at home to Hearts.

Christie, in the first period especially, was at the heart of almost every Inverness move. By half-time he had scored a spectacular goal, created another for Miles Storey, and been denied another goal only by a terrific fingertip stop by Danny Ward. Aberdeen simply couldn’t contain him.

His goal, Inverness’ second after half an hour, was a pearler. Christie was around 30 yards from goal when he received possession but had the vision and technique to launch an effort goalwards that sailed over Ward and into the net. It was quite the thing. By that point he had already played a sizeable role in Inverness’ first goal, skinning Graeme Shinnie with an outrageous turn before playing in Storey with a well-weighted pass. The on-loan Swindon Town player did the rest, smashing a shot across Ward and into the far corner of the net.

Christie’s day, however, would finish on a sour note. Shinnie could barely lay a glove on his one-time Inverness team-mate during a one-sided first half but Christie found a way to twice, illegally, halt Shinnie in the second half as Aberdeen toiled in vain to find an equaliser. That earned him two bookings and a 90th-minute red card that slightly marred an otherwise hugely impressive display.

Christie, of course, is a Celtic player now and only on loan at Inverness, and his contribution in denying Aberdeen a ninth-successive league victory would surely have gone down well at Parkhead. Hughes, in that mischief-making way of his, later offered up the theory that Christie had been motivated by the chance to help his new club and Christie conceded it certainly wouldn’t have done him any harm.

“If that puts me in the Celtic manager's good books, I'll be happy,” he said with a smile. “Is Celtic in my mind? I get more spurred by the thought of pushing Inverness and getting wins. But I need to make sure the consistency is there and I'm playing well so they can see I'm ready when I get called down and can go straight into the first-team squad.”

He was slightly narked, though, at his late red card. "I'll need to have a word with Graeme for getting me sent off,” he said, again not being wholly serious. “It was disappointing and I was maybe a little bit naive.”

The tone was rather more sombre in the Aberdeen camp. If it had seemed fanciful that their League Cup midweek exit to Hibernian could somehow be considered beneficial to their title aspirations then there was little sign of it here. They eventually managed to get a foothold back in the contest via Ash Taylor’s 35th-minute header but it would prove a false dawn. There was a greater energy about them in the second period but beyond a Peter Pawlett free-kick that struck a post and a late David Goodwillie chance they never really looked like eking out an equaliser. Derek McInnes did not spare his players afterwards.

"The team that won the game deserved it,” said the Aberdeen manager. "I didn't recognise my team in the first 45 minutes. We were second-best all over the pitch. Wee Christie lit the game up with his ability and we never got to grips with him. Inverness were excellent in that period and while we dominated the second half, they deserved it. In my time as manager, I've had disappointments like losing semi-finals. But I felt that first half was as poor a performance as I've been in charge of. It's not easy to criticise the team as they have been excellent for the last two and a half years. But for the first time, I felt we didn't have the enthusiasm and desire to stop the opposition playing.”