RYAN Christie can visualise himself celebrating in front of that small pocket of away fans crammed into the corner between the Sandy Jardine and Broomloan Road stands at Ibrox today. That is because the image of him and his then team-mates doing precisely that on that very same piece of Rangers real estate in front of the travelling Aberdeen fans as they celebrated their first win in Govan since 1991 last May made it all the way to the walls of Pittodrie. Christie, on-loan at the time from Parkhead, headed in Aberdeen’s clinching second goal that night, and he would dearly love to create some new memories with his parent club this lunchtime.

Not all of his recollections of playing at Ibrox are quite so fond, mind you. He also sampled the other side of the coin last season when he was sent off during a 3-0 defeat, and knows what it is like to play in front of hardly any travelling supporters, when playing a midweek match there with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

“I scored that day with a header,” recalled Christie. “It was just a brilliant occasion. There were a few really good photographs from the celebrations in that corner as I scored up that end, I saw them up at the club and they actually ended up going up on one of the walls in Pittodrie.

“It’s just a brilliant photo of us and all the fans in that wee corner. That night was pretty special for Aberdeen as they hadn’t won there in so long. It would be nice to get another photo celebrating in that wee corner. “

Christie has tasted just 13 minutes of Old Firm action but he already knows what it feels like to celebrate a victory in front of a rather larger portion of your own supporters. Coming on as a late substitute for Tom Rogic in the 1-0 win against Rangers in early September, Christie was there in time to taste the team’s post-match lap of honour.

“I don’t think I breathed the whole time I was on the park,” said Christie. “But just to be on the pitch and part of a derby win is amazing. You feel it after the game among the Celtic supporters and how much it means to them, so those are the thoughts you need to bring into this game.”

This group of Celtic players can take ownership of quite a piece of Scottish football history today, as victory would see them rack up five successive Ibrox wins for more than a century, and their first-ever such run of five successive league games. Christie reckons such thoughts couldn’t be further from he and his team-mate’s minds; far more pertinent will be recent history such as the late momentum swing between these two Glasgow giants in the closing stages of Wednesday’s meetings with Aberdeen and Hibs respectively and the knowledge that establishing a six-point lead ahead of the January break to Dubai could be the defining moment of the Ladbrokes Premiership title race. “We don’t really think of previous results there; I think it’s quite silly to do that,” said Christie. said Christie, who could revert to his usual deeper role after a stint as false No 9 at Pittodrie. “You see so many other teams in the league playing three games in a week this month and all complaining but we’ve being doing this for the past two years.”