PAUL Hartley believed his Dundee side had a draw in the bag, only for Inverness Caledonian Thistle substitute Ryan Christie to shatter his illusions.

Billy McKay had cancelled out Greg Stewart's first-half opener for the Dens Park hosts, but Hartley was still confident they would take something from the game until Christie struck two minutes from time to send John Hughes' side back into second place in the SPFL Premiership, after they had been deposed by Dundee United's Friday night win over Ross County.

"I thought we were going to get a point at least," the Dundee manager said. "We were excellent in the first half, the way we stopped Inverness from playing. But we stopped off a wee bit in the second half and lost two poor goals.

"Inverness didn't work hard enough for the goals they got. We didn't defend the crosses and didn't stop runners coming into the box. The second-half performance compared to the first was night and day.

"But there are no excuses. We go to Hamilton next week for a really tough game so we have to lift ourselves for that."

Dundee started on the front foot and midfielder Jim McAlister shot over the bar from 25 yards after five minutes.

At the other end Josh Meekings powered a header off the bar from Greg Tansey's inswinging corner after 10 minutes with Dundee goalkeeper Scott Bain beaten.

A misjudgment by Inverness goalkeeper Dean Brill saw him send an attempted clearance straight to the feet of Martin Boyle after 18 minutes.

With Brill off his line, Boyle attempted to chip him from distance, but Gary Warren got back in time to clear the danger. But the hosts went in front after 21 minutes when Gary Harkins' flighted free kick to the far post eluded the Inverness defence, allowing Stewart to drift in at the far post to finish past Brill from close range.

Inverness came out fired up after the break and were level after 56 minutes. Marley Watkins fed James Vincent who hooked the ball into the box for McKay and he netted from 10 yards after Bain had come off his line to try to close him down.

James McPake headed over from a Harkins corner and with 10 minutes left Graeme Shinnie released Caley Thistle substitute Aaron Doran, but Bain came off his line to collect.

Teenager Christie, though, got the better of the goalkeeper, latching on to Watkins' cross from the left and flicked the ball into the corner of the net from eight yards.

Inverness manager Hughes said: "It's great for Ryan, I'm delighted for him. He's been in and out of the team this season. Now he's knocking on the door to get back in and that's all credit to him. I always thought there was a winner coming, especially with what we had coming off the bench. The substitutes just swung it in our favour."