Sideways rain lashing a plastic pitch in the dead of December, it’s no wonder Nick Montgomery described Hibs as being bunkered down.

That is the nature of Premiership football at this time of year, digging in and sucking up a relentless stream of fixtures that can exert significant influence on New Year’s resolutions. Will Hibs feel good enough about themselves to promise it’s third place or bust come May? The state of play when the winter break arrives will dictate the level of optimism heading into the second half of the campaign, and if it’s anything like full-time in Livingston on Saturday, Hibs will slide into January with a quiet confidence.

A palpable relief poured out of more than a few purple jerseys when referee Grant Irvine called time on a tense conclusion to Saturday’s 1-0 win over the league’s bottom side, some even celebrating it with the same fervour as they'd give a last minute winner. Even without knowing results elsewhere, it was so clear it felt significant.

A midweek drubbing from Celtic can justifiably be taken in isolation, but there’s always the lingering threat that it could’ve derailed the momentum built in the weeks before it. On paper, following that up against a side who had lost six on the bounce, failing to score in five of them, was the ideal opportunity to course correct.

But even despite Livingston’s very real struggles, they remain a side who demand you graft for 90 minutes if you’re to take anything off them. Their recent record suggests a group on the verge of throwing the towel in, but it was quickly evident yesterday that they are still putting in a shift for David Martindale, and it was perhaps only their lack of quality in key moments – plus some brilliance from David Marshall – that stopped them breaking their scoring duck.

Hibs, meanwhile, didn’t sparkle for extended periods, but they do possess the attacking talent their opponents wanted for, and it took only one moment of excellence from Martin Boyle to secure maximum points. An expected goals of just 0.28 for Montgomery’s side tells the story that this was a win that was ground out through sheer force of will, but that might just be extra pleasing for the manager given the venue and conditions.

It looks increasingly like Montgomery has surveyed this squad, one that leaked late goals for fun even in the immediate weeks following his arrival, and decided he must instil some trademark traits from his own playing days. His career was built on being the archetypal ‘honest pro’, and part of him probably wished he was in amongst Saturday’s second-half slog, deep in the trenches to dig out what was clearly a hugely satisfying result.

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“We showed character today,” Montgomery made a point of saying more than once afterwards, and he deserves credit for bringing that out of this group. You do not win four games from five in this division, with multiple personnel changes and minimal depth on the bench, without having a bit about you. The alterations in style of play have been obvious, but it’s the more intangible elements of football that have carried Hibs through this much-improved run of form.

It is, however, not over yet.

Up next is a journey to Perth, a reunion with an old foe in Craig Levein, and a tricky test against a St Johnstone side enjoying an unlikely revival. They were almost universally tipped for the drop when the season’s predictions were thrown around back in August, but that outcome is much harder to assert with any certainty now that Levein has his claws in them. After that, it’s the long haul up to Dingwall to meet another revitalised team in Ross County, who have proved that the new manager bounce is alive and well since the arrival of Derek Adams to replace Malky Mackay.

It's why Montgomery will not allow his players to rest on the current run of successes, not least because no other team with ambitions of finishing best of the rest are setting the proverbial heather alight. Saturday’s win lifted Hibs above Hearts, and while it remains very early days, for fans it’s always a significant marker of where their team are at.

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The next Edinburgh derby is creeping up on the calendar just two days after Christmas, and arriving into it with another two wins would further up the ante on a fixture that really doesn’t require any extra hype. To do so, however, requires Hibs to keep showing the mental fortitude and will to win that has pulled through October’s inconsistencies.

It’s a tough ask, no doubt, and the manager has been walking a tightrope with injuries, expressing a reluctance to risk players carrying even a slight issue in the knowledge that he cannot afford any major fitness setbacks. But he will be comforted by the ample evidence that his Hibs group are prepared to battle through this period, and he might just see a bit of himself in that.