Nick Montgomery praised the character of his side as they bounced back from their midweek defeat to Celtic with a 1-0 victory over Livingston that allowed them to leapfrog capital rivals Hearts.

However, they had to survive two penalty claims which could have handed Livingston a shot at an equaliser and the chance to nab their first goal in over nine hours of football. The first was a foul by Joe Newell on Kurtis Guthrie deep into the first half and the other was a late, late handball shout. But the Leith side escaped when the referee, Grant Irvine, refused to even take a second look at the first incident and then VAR correctly showed an offside in the build-up to Paul Hanlon’s second-half handball infringement.

“I’m really happy to get the points because this is not an easy place to come. We knew we would have to match their fight and we did that,” said the Hibs manager, whose team has now won four of their last five games. “I thought we defended really well and special mention goes to Paul Hanlon, Will Fish and big Davie Marshall for dealing with a lot of those balls into the box.

Referee Grant Irvine checks VAR which shows an offside before the foul by Hibs' Paul Hnalon on Livingston's Mo Sangare.

“It was a bit nervy towards the end, I’m not going to lie. [For the late penalty incident], I thought the boy was offside initially but then they were checking for something else. To get through that and see the game out, I’m really happy with that. If you go back four or five weeks, we conceded a lot of late goals from winning positions. So it’s great to get through the game today with a clean sheet and three points from a really difficult fixture.

Accepting the second call, Livingston – who now sit five points adrift at the foot of the table – were more infuriated by the first, which might have handed them a quick response to Martin Boyle’s 29th minute strike. “Grant didn’t have the chance to go to the screen for the incident with Kurtis,” said their manager David Martindale. “That is disappointing. We got told that Kurtis initiated the contact but I’m not sure that’s my view on it.

“I am disappointed that Grant didn’t get to look because you are then letting VAR decide, not the on-field ref. I want the referee to use the technology when the decisions are subjective – it shouldn’t come down to someone sitting in a sterile room who isn’t involved in the game. The second penalty claim is probably offside but I didn't understand the process. When you are bottom of the league, those decisions go against you.”

There was obvious delight in the Hibs ranks at the final whistle, with Montgomery praising the togetherness and the resilience shown to see out the game in a winning position. “What is important is that we showed character off the back of the Celtic result,” he said. "We needed to focus on coming here and get back to winning ways and I’m really happy for the boys. You can’t come here and have passengers. Paul came back in and was solid with Will Fish who had a big cut on his head at the start, got stitched up at half-time and then won headers. Our team has a lot of quality, spirit and camaraderie.”

Hibs' resilience hailed as two big penalty decisions dominate aftermath of Livingston victory - 'I want the referee to use the technology'