A ruthless second-half performance ensured that Partick Thistle and their hardy band of followers returned from the Highlands full of festive cheer after ending a seven-match winless by beating Ross County to climb off the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

Goals from Liam Lindsay, Kris Doolan and Chris Erskine after the break finally gave Jags boss Alan Archibald the points to go with the performance as a wild, wintry night in Dingwall transformed into a winter wonderland for the travelling support.

The result sees the visitors move within two points of County in the top-flight table after the home side yet again failed to put together two consecutive wins - a feat they haven’t achieved since August.

Storm Barbara had threatened to impact this festive fixture, but conditions held out for the majority of the game as an enjoyable, high-tempo game unfolded.

The hosts made the brighter start as Tim Chow curled a shot from range narrowly wide inside the opening five minutes before a thundering effort from Christopher Routis cannoned back off the advertising hoarding and Ryan Dow’s effort was charged down inside the Thistle penalty box.

Thistle grew more comfortable as the half wore on, but were struggling to test Staggies goalkeeper Scott Fox as a long-range Sean Welsh effort flew harmlessly over and Liam Lindsay failed to direct his header on target from a corner.

Ten minutes before the break a flurry of chances arrived at both ends, with Tony Dingwall firing into Tomas Cerny’s arms before Thistle went up the other end to create the chance of the first half.

Chris Erskine gathered the ball on the edge of the box, dropped his shoulder and fired a shot at goal that was beaten away well by Fox, who then recovered to gather a follow-up header from Ryan Edwards.

Two minutes later the visitors came forward again, but Welsh couldn’t find the target after meeting Booth’s hanging cross.

Thistle boss Archibald appeared to have done the trick with his half-time team talk as the visitors raced out of the blocks after referee John Beaton restarted proceedings.

Lindsay rose to meet a Sean Welsh corner and powered a header beyond the helpless Scott Fox into the top corner, marking the central defender’s sixth goal of the season.

It got better just after the half-hour mark as County again failed to deal with Thistle’s aerial threat. Callum Booth delivered a cross from the left hand side which was met by striker Doolan, who found the corner expertly to double the visitors’ lead.

County reacted and had a golden chance to pull one back only four minutes later, when top scorer Liam Boyce was sent clean through on goal only to be denied by the sprawling Tomas Cerny.

The uncharacteristic wastefulness of Boyce was punished when Erskine put the result beyond doubt with 12 minutes remaining, firing high into the net after fashioning some space for himself inside the County box.

Premiership top scorer Boyce scored his 11th goal of the season on the 83rd minute when he powered in a header from Marcus Fraser’s cross, but it was too little too late for the hosts.

The result will put Archibald’s side in confident mood ahead of their remaining fixtures in 2016 as they look to move up a congested table in home games against Dundee and Kilmarnock.