Motherwell came away from the Highlands with a resounding 1-5 win in Dingwall.
Goals from Blair Spittal and Paul McGinn had the away side up at the break before Spittal, Zdravkovski and Paton added gloss to the scoreline late on.
County, who came into this enounter with only one home defeat in eight, were on the ropes early as the visitors started brightly and nearly took a lead when Andy Halliday was slid in on the edge of the box, but the midfielder’s effort was matched by Laidlaw who made a fine stop.
The Steelmen were looking dangerous but their lead came in an unexpected fashion. Liam Kelly angled a ball forward which harmlessly ended up at Ross Laidlaw but the County ‘keeper spilled it straight to Blair Spittal who gratefully fired home.
County didn’t take long to respond, drawing level five minutes later. Disappointingly it was from a Motherwell corner, which Brophy broke away from and slid in Simon Murray who cooly slotted past Kelly.
As the game started to even out, it looked as though both sides would head down the tunnel level, probably deservedly so, but Paul McGinn had other ideas.
Georgie Gent’s free-kick was again fumbled by Laidlaw and it landed kindly to the feet of the former Scotland International who fired in his first Motherwell goal and first time hitting the net since May 2022.
Don Cowie made three changes at the break as County looked to find a way back in to the match to edge away from relegation trouble for all their hard work and endeavour, they rarely troubled Liam Kelly.
Indeed, as Motherwell looked to see the game out, they broke forward through Theo Bair and he laid it on a plate for Blair Spittal to notch his second of the game with a superb curler into the top corner.
At that point it looked like game over but the Steelmen weren’t finished yet.
Theo Bair burst in behind the defence and with a shot looking likely, he unselfishly pulled it back to his teammate Davor Zdravkovski who powered it into the net for his first goal in claret and amber.
‘Well weren’t finished there as Harry Paton was sent into the box, with a moment of brilliance from Blair Spittal, allowing the Canadian to slot into the bottom corner.
Motherwell now take on Hibernian, with the Lanarkshire side looking to continue their decent form in the run-up to the league finalé.