91Èȱ¬

On-loan Inverness midfielder Ryan Christie says he wants to help John Hughes's side towards a top-six finish before he leaves for Celtic.

Christie signed on at Parkhead but was loaned back until at least January.

"It feels that nothing's really changed coming in here and training," Christie told 91Èȱ¬ Scotland.

"Football wise I'm with Inverness. I want to make sure whether it's January I leave or the end of the season, that I've done the most that I can."

The Scotland Under-21 international believes staying in the Highlands will help his development in the short term.

"I do think a positive coming back here on loan was that gives me a chance to get more starts under my belt and the more football I play the more experience I'll gain," he said.

"Hopefully that'll push me further to getting close to Celtic's first team when I go down.

"They said it's going to be tough but I wouldn't have joined Celtic if I didn't think I was up to that challenge.

"They're [Celtic] still keeping in touch and making sure I'm training my hardest and doing things off the park to make sure when I go down there I'm not getting chucked in the deep end."

Caley Thistle achieved their first win of the season in their last outing against Hearts with a convincing 2-0 win and Christie admits it was important to get that victory before confidence became an issue.

"It's not a nice feeling going without a win," he explained. "I wouldn't say we were panicking but it's something the longer it went on the worse the morale would have got.

"Especially doing it in such a way against Hearts. I don't think we really stole the game, I think we deserved to win. It's definitely a performance we can kick on from now."