It’s Saturday night in Auchterarder and police have been called to the High Street to move on a rowdy group of young men.
It’s a common job for any beat officer.
In the summer months especially it’s often a sign that someone’s stag do has got a bit out of control.
But when the police turn up this time there isn’t an inflatable sheep or banana in sight.
Instead they find the Scottish Cup adorned with red, white and blue ribbons.
Ryan Christie admits that some of the celebrations that went on long into the night are a bit hazy but his memories of the victorious Caley Thistle team’s bus journey back from Hampden on May 30, 2015 will never be forgotten.
“It was so surreal,” he said. “We got on the bus after the game and there were just crates of drink everywhere.
“We usually stopped at Auchterarder for fish and chips on the way back from away games but this time people had been drinking heaps so everyone needed to pile out for a pee.
“We end up in a tiny bar, people are singing, banging the roof and the trophy’s just being flung about everywhere.
“We go back out onto the street and the boys are just jumping around in the middle of Auchterarder High Street.
“Then the police came to move us on because our bus was blocking the street. A crowd of people were watching us by this point but I’m not sure they knew who we were, they just thought it was so bizarre.”
Caley Jags manager John Hughes isn’t much of a drinker – those that know him best are happy to say he’s crazy enough without it – but on the back of his finest hour in management he decided to let his hair down.
Christie said: “Yogi doesn’t drink much as he’s a bit of a headcase, and he was going mental.
“He had his tie wrapped round his forehand, his shirt was unbuttoned and he was just sprinting up and down the bus throwing punches.
“I think he had Aaron Doran in a headlock for about 20 minutes and just kept screaming James Vincent’s name.”
After an incredible season, the players had more than earned their chance to party.
It was a release too.
Caley Thistle were on the crest of a wave having finished third in the Scottish Premiership and qualifying for Europe for the first time.
After dumping Celtic out in the semi-final, everyone expected them to make light work of Falkirk.
But it didn’t turn out that way and when Carl Tremarco saw red and Peter Grant equalised for the Bairns within the space of five minutes, it looked like Inverness might have thrown it away.
Christie started the game but had been replaced by eventual match-winner Vincent a few minutes before Tremarco was ordered off.
“When they scored I just remember feeling completely sick watching it,” Christie said.
“You’ve been subbed off so you can’t impact it. You’re just sat there hoping and praying.”
To the delight of Christie and 14,000 Caley Thistle supporters, Vincent answered those prayers with his late winner.
The wild journey home was just the tip of the iceberg for the players who partied all night and then boarded a bus bound for the Northern Meeting Park for a city-wide celebration the next day.
Christie said: “The boys went out in Inverness wearing full suits and with their medals. We had to be on the bus at the stadium by 9am the next morning and I think some of the boys just went straight there from being out.
“I turned up a little worse for wear but I remember others being passed out on physio tables.
“I didn’t even realise we were going to the Meeting Park, I thought it was just a lap of the town. When you got on the stage and saw the crowd, it was amazing.
“You really felt a sense of what we had done for the city, everybody was so delighted for you.”
Christie was only 20 at the time of Caley Thistle’s Scottish Cup triumph.
He’s already gone on to lift two Scottish Premiership titles with Celtic and collect 11 Scotland caps, but his first major honour with his hometown club is right up there with anything else he has achieved.
He said: “I flew to Barcelona for a holiday three days after the final. Going through security was the first time I took my medal off.
“Memories like that are so special.”
