Ian Murray played a true captain's part to give Hibs all three points against bottom of the table Livingston.
The midfielder scored his second goal in three games to settle a bruising encounter which produced seven bookings.
Murray struck in the dying seconds of the first half, when he ran onto a pass from Grant Brebner to drill a low shot into the corner of the net.
Livingston produced a late rally but their finishing was unconvincing and they have now lost six in a row going into Thursday's UEFA Cup tie against Sturm Graz.
It started brightly for Livingston and David Xausa should have done better after two minutes, when he met a corner from Barry Wilson, but he failed to get his header on target and Hibs escaped the early scare.
Chances were few and far between in this dull affair, but Hibs came close after 37 minutes when a corner from Finnish midfielder Jarkko Wiss eluded Javier Sanchez Broto, but Francisco Quino was on the back post to clear.
Hibs made the breakthrough on the stroke of half time when Murray scored out of the blue.
Livingston came back in the second half and Wilson had the ball in the net after 62 minutes, but had gathered the ball in an offside position.
Three minutes later Xausa was denied by an excellent reaction save from Nick Colgan and Francisco Luna saw a 79th minute shot blocked by Broto, before Garry O'Connor shot carelessly wide.
Livingston substitute Colin McMenamin had a chance with just five minutes left, but he shot straight at Colgan and Hibs held on for the three-points