Lyndon Dykes’ hat-trick helped Livingston to a comfortable 4-0 demolition of a timid Ross County.
All three of his strikes came from clinical finishes inside the penalty area, after Ricki Lamie had put Gary Holt’s side in front.
County offered little resistance and were insipid in attack, compounding a miserable week for the Dingwall club.
After the Norovirus outbreak that swept through the County camp this week, they were still able to name a strong side at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
Michael Gardyne’s injury kept him out, while Brian Graham and Liam Fontaine missed out, with Marcus Fraser, Lee Erwin and Billy Mckay coming in. Teenagers Ruari Fraser, Josh Reid and Matthew Wright were named on the bench.
The visitors, after surviving a couple of penalty box snap-shots from Livi, had two sighters at Matija Sarkic’s goal. First, Ross Stewart glanced a header wide from Sean Kelly’s free-kick and then Erwin climbed highest at the back post to meet Josh Mullin’s cross but could not find the target.
A Steve Lawson corner that evaded everyone gave County a warning shot and Nathan Baxter was soon required in the visitors’ goal, parrying a Scott Pittman shot wide.
It was a precursor of what was to come as Lamie put the home side in front on 31 minutes, slotting in from Jon Guthrie’s cut-back after the Staggies failed to deal with Alan Lithgow’s long throw.
There was a response of sorts from County, with Harry Paton teeing up Mullin to strike from 25 yards but Sarkic beat the ball away at his near post.
But with four minutes left before the break Dykes doubled Livi’s advantage, crashing past Nathan Baxter after Steven Lawless picked him out on the right of the penalty area.
Dykes profited again from slack County defending to get his second just after the interval. Baxter pushed out Marvin Bartley’s effort straight to Pittman, who turned it back across goal and despite Aymen Souda being upended going for the ball, Dykes was on hand to finish.
He completed his deserved hat-trick was 17 minutes to go as he met Steve Lawson’s cross with a diving header to complete the Livi rout.
County offered little optimism for their travelling supporters, with Sarkic untroubled in the second half. The Staggies are at home to Motherwell on Boxing Day.
