RYAN Christie is convinced he has what it takes to break through Celtic's midfield logjam.

The former Inverness player made an impressive contribution after coming off the bench in Saturday's 3-0 win over his old club.

And he now has his sights firmly trained on convincing Ronny Deila he has what it takes to be first pick at Parkhead despite the wealth of midfield talent available to the manager.

He said: “I’m just almost in the door and back from injury, so I’m still finding my feet but it’s a great team be part of and I can definitely see a big future with the young talent we've got.

“It was a strange experience coming on against boys I played with a couple of months ago, but I was obviously delighted to get on the pitch and get a good 20 minutes under my belt and hopefully I can push on from here.

“Me, Scott Allan and Patrick Roberts are all similar players - we want to show a bit of flair and get forward on the ball so we're all desperate to get on the park and show what we can do.

"As soon as all of us step on to the park, we're trying to prove a point that we're trying to get into that starting XI.

“In training, there is a real togetherness, especially in the attacking third, and the likes of Tom Rogic are all very technically-gifted players and if we can put that together on the pitch I’m sure we will start playing very well.

Christie has had to play a waiting game before knocking on the first team door.

But he is confident that he can now kick on from the Inverness game.

He told Celtic's official website: “Everybody knows in the dressing room that there is a lot of competition between players but that’s part of football and a challenge everyone has to accept,” said the attacking midfielder.

“When you find yourself out the team, it’s important to keep your head up and everyone in the dressing room has a good attitude so that is what they will do. It will be hard for the manager but it’s his decision to pick the team and it’s our job just to keep working hard in training.

"Just about everyone in the dressing room is back to full fitness and everyone is raring to go, but It’s good that there’s such competition. You can complain that there are too many players but it wouldn’t be great if it was the opposite way about and we had injuries so there are pros and cons.”