After another Europa League defeat at home to Celta Vigo on Thursday, the champions bounced back with a hard-fought victory at windy Easter Road that restored their four-point cushion over Rangers at the top.

Bottom side Hibs took an early lead through Owen Elding but it was swiftly cancelled out by a Jason Kerr own goal before Camilo Duran’s 10th of the season just before the break proved decisive.

“The performance wasn’t that fantastic, the blustery conditions probably didn’t help,” said boss O’Neill. “We didn’t play great, but to me, I thought it was our best win of the season, considering the circumstances.

“Coming here it doesn’t matter where Hibs are placed in the league, it’s always been difficult.

“And then to come from a goal behind to win the game, to see the three points through, I thought it was our best one of the season, seriously.

“We were still on the bus when Hibs scored. It’s a very, very good free kick from their viewpoint, really clever, but we were asleep for it.

“Then we score pretty much immediately, and then Duran comes up with a wonder goal to win the game.

“I didn’t think at that stage that was going to be the winning goal, but I’m seriously pleased with the win, considering everything.”

The shine was taken off by the fact Johnston had to go off barely 20 minutes after entering the fray as a second-half substitute for his first appearance in two and a half months.

“He felt something at the top of his hamstring, a wee bit higher than before, which might be encouraging, I don’t know,” said O’Neill.

“We’ll have to wait to see scans and things, and we’ll assess it. But yeah, he’s obviously disappointed there. He played 20 minutes and even in that little period of time you saw what he’s capable of, both defensively and getting forward.

“It would be a big blow to him, a big blow to the club, if it is a hamstring injury. If you have to go and do rehab again, that’s a worry, and for us as a club because we’ve been looking forward to him coming back for the last couple of weeks.”

New Hibs boss Marink Reedijk suffered a third straight defeat but the Dutchman was heartened by his team’s “bravery” and “togetherness” and felt they were “the equals of Celtic” on the day.

“The result is not what I want and not what we deserved,” he said. “I think the performance was again an improvement on what we did the last couple of weeks.

“We didn’t give away a lot of chances. I believe we are in a good way and that the points will come.”

Explaining his decision to send on centre-back Grant Hanley as a striker late in the match, Reedijk said: “I saw the momentum of the game change in favour of Celtic and I wanted to impact something, I wanted to create a little bit of chaos.

“I spoke with Granty about it and he did a fantastic job in executing. I think we got two good chances because of that.”