Every word from Nick Montgomery Hibs Q&A after win at Livi

A bit nerve-wracking at the end, but how did it feel to get the points?

“I’m really happy to get the points because this is not an easy place to come. We knew we would have to match them for fight and we did that.  The conditions, the wind swirling, the pitch is really quick. We knew we’d have to get into our bunker at times and deal with those long throw-ins, balls into the box, direct balls. When there was no pressure on the ball, we knew it would come into the box – and they’re a really big team.  But I thought we defended really well. Special mention goes to Paul Hanlon, Will Fish and big Davie Marshall for dealing with a lot of those balls into the box.  On the other side of it, we probably had a couple of more chances to build a bigger lead before half-time. Then we have a goal disallowed."

READ MORE: Hibs instant analysis as Martin Boyle winner grinds it out

"What we couldn’t do was just get sucked into a fight, because those boys fight for David Martindale. You see that. But I thought we stayed composed and continued to play in the second half.  It was a bit nervy towards the end, I’m not going to lie. I thought the boy was offside initially and 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. That’s something we’ve worked really hard to deal with. So it’s great to get through the game today with a clean sheet and three points from a really difficult fixture. 

That's four wins in five, can you feel momentum building?

“We talk about momentum all the time and I thought we showed character today.  What is important we showed character today off the back of the Celtic result. We needed to focus on coming here and get back to wining ways and I’m really happy for the boys as it’s a tough place to come and a lot of teams will come here and struggle. They are a very big team and if you don’t defend properly you will get punished."

A great finish from Martin Boyle, wasn't it?

"We’ve got a lot of quality, we know that. If anything we could have finished other games off without getting nervous at the end but Martin is a quality player. He is a great finisher and you want to the ball to land to the likes of Boyle, Vente, Jair, Elie - we’re blessed in terms of having technical attacking players that can punish the opposition. It’s a real tidy finish from Boyley and we’re happy for him.

Early days, of course, but you're up to fourth ahead of Hearts...

"It’s that old adage, we don’t really concentrate on anybody else, we concentrate on ourselves and we know if we win games of football that is going to lift us up the table. We don’t really look too far ahead, it’s about taking each game as it comes and we’ll move on from this.

You mentioned Paul Hanlon, do you feel he stood up well in difficult conditions?

"Yeah. I thought the back four stood up really well. It was a real team performance. You can’t come to places like this and have passengers. Paul came back in and was solid with Will Fish. He had a big cut on his head at the start, got stitched up at half-time and then won headers. We created a lot of problems in the second half but they defended resiliently as well and I’m sure Davie will be happy with that.

Is it pleasing to see the team show different sides of themselves - scoring good goals and, as you say, bunkering down when needed?

"It’s important in a good team when you have moments where you need to fight and get through those situations that can be a little bit uncomfortable. I thought we did that today. Our team has a lot of quality, spirt and camaraderie. I knew that coming into the club in the first week when I got to know the players. You need to fight at places like this, it’s not an easy place to come to in those conditions. A big thank you to the fans, it was nice to go over to them at the end. It was raining sideways today. We’re lucky to have that support."