Sunday 15 February 2015 17:41, UK
Inverness manager John Hughes was full of praise for rising star Ryan Christie after his side’s 2-1 victory away to St Mirren.
Christie’s 60th-minute strike proved the decisive blow in Saturday’s game, which moved Inverness to level on points with second-placed Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.
It was the Christie’s fourth goal of the season in the league, and Hughes believes to be a sign of great things yet to come for the bright midfielder.
"I'm possibly working with the best young kid, technically, that I've worked with in the boy Christie," Hughes said.
"He's going to be whatever he wants to be, and the reason I say that is because there are players in front of him at other clubs, but they're older than him. You give him another couple of years in the [Premiership] getting those games under his belt and you'll see his technique and talent.
I'm possibly working with the best young kid, technically, that I've worked with in the boy Christie.
"I love just watching him training, because he trains with a smile on his face and we absolutely torture him on the training pitch and he keeps coming back for more.
"We never give him a free-kick, we moan at him and he just gets on with it. He's just a gem of a boy.”
With a sending off against St Mirren in October’s being the midfielder’s only blemish so far this season, Christie has proved an important part of Hughes’s set up.
Hughes believes the young Scot can only improve while playing for Inverness, but remained wary of Christie becoming burned out.
"Technically he's very, very good. He can get goals, he's getting stronger, his passing range, his touch, he takes it on the back foot, and we've looked after him.
"He's played 15 games this year, we've taken him out to keep the reins on him and now it's time to let him go again, and he came up trumps today."
Hughes was also generous in his praise of his team as a whole, particularly in an opening half master class in passing and movement that had the St Mirren players chasing shadows.
"The first-half performance was very good," Hughes said. "We were a little bit disappointed to go in at half-time with only the one goal, we felt our performance merited more goals."
St Mirren manager Gary Teale was disappointed that his side did not put the visitors under enough pressure, particularly during that first half in which his team were fortunate to concede just one goal.
"I was disappointed in terms of our energy," said Teale. "We were a mile off it in the first half in our energy levels to cope with the way that Inverness like to play.
"They've got a lot of movement in their front three or front four with the option of stretching it with Marley Watkins, who was a massive thorn in our side today, so I was disappointed we didn't manage to get too close to them.
"I'm a realist and if we had (managed a draw) I would have taken it, but it would have papered over the cracks of our performance."
