IT may be the season to be jolly, but around Firhill the seasonal festivities were brought to a shuddering halt by Highland party poopers Ross County.

With this assured 2-0 win County claimed a third victory over Partick Thistle this term.

And that bald statistic, coupled with the fact that Thistle have failed to score once against their bogey team, may well consign them to another season in the financially crippling climes of the Irn-Bru First Division.

Quite simply Jags are short of at least three quality signings and none more so than up front, where the lack of a powerhouse striking presence repeatedly sees the Firhill men out- muscled in the final quarter.

Yet this situation will now cause the board to examine their side's plight as they face up to the dilemma over whether to gamble on backing manager Ian McCall in a January transfer swoop.

The alternative, however, seems more likely. With Thistle now nine points behind leaders St Johnstone, who have the finance to strengthen further in January, this particular defeat may convince the board to play safe.

Even worse it may mean that Thistle will now listen to offers for several of their outstanding, but still inconsistent, young stars Gary Harkins, Jonny Tuffey, Kevin McKinlay, Marc Twaddle and Liam Buchanan.

Today as he took stock of sickening defeat, manager McCall said: "We were awful. Whereas in the last few weeks we have had six or seven players playing to their best I could give only two players pass marks.

"I don't know if it is a mentality thing, but every time we get in a position to really challenge the top of the table we blow it.

"But I will be questioning what I do and the players need to do the same."

McCall added: "A lot of big players just didn't turn up for us and we have no complaints over Marc Twaddle's sending-off - it was a moment of madness.

"County are a decent team and they seem to be a bogey team for us, but they deserved the win."

The one thing given from the two previous meetings between the sides this term is that Thistle can't come from behind against County.

Derek Adams' side are classic adherents of the counter-attacking game but in this instance, such was their ability to disrupt Thistle and string together dangerous passages of play, it was the Jags who looked like they were the away team in the opening exchanges.

The Staggies took a deserved lead after 24 minutes. A speculative Stuart Golabek punt was latched onto by Sean Higgins some 25 yards out and he sublimely lobbed Jonny Tuffey with the outside of his boot.

Finally, on the half-hour mark, Thistle threatened. A superb diagonal ball by Kevin McKinlay picked out Liam Buchanan at the back post, but after taking a touch he smashed over under pressure from County keeper Derek Soutar. A minute before the break Thistle almost achieved parity when Buchanan's glancing header from a Simon Donnelly cross hit the County bar.

Then in 72 minutes with manager McCall having gambled everything on three attacking substitutions a moment of supreme rashness saw Thistle disastrously reduced to 10 men.

With County right-back Mark McCulloch about to launch a ball from 25 yards out, Twaddle scythed through the defender and earned his second yellow card and a red. It was almost the only decision blundering whistler Stephen Finnie got right all afternoon.

The full stop was finally applied five minutes from the end when Higgins was played through by David Winters and lobbed the advancing Tuffey with a composed finish.

After a performance so poor that not even a shot on goal was registered, a show of character is required at Morton on Tuesday night ... or the post-mortem into the death of the promotion dream will begin in earnest.

Partick Thistle: Tuffey, Paton, Twaddle, Storey (McKeown 59), Robertson, Archibald, McKinlay, Rowson (Chaplain 71), Buchanan, Donnelly (Roberts 64), Harkins. Subs not used: Hinchcliffe, Kinniburgh.