Winger Jordan Jones reduced the deficit with a penalty just before the interval but the Gorgie side saw out the second half without too much concern to move to within a point of fourth-placed Aberdeen.

Levein claimed after a fifth win in six games that his side have got their "mojo" back and in his assessment of the latest success said: "It is hard to get points down here, hard to beat Kilmarnock.

"It was a hard-fought, competitive, game of cat and mouse and a couple of moments of real quality won us the game.

"Arnaud Djoum's play leading up to the pass to Sean Clare and the execution of the set-piece were the difference between the two teams.

"Austin (MacPhee, assistant) works really hard with the set-pieces and everything about it fell into place – and the fact that Steven was on the end of it made me feel we had the chance to score."

Killie remain in third place, behind Rangers on goal difference and six points behind leaders Celtic.

Manager Steve Clarke claimed it was not one of referee Steven McLean's better performances and felt his team's cause was not helped by four yellow cards inside the last 18 minutes of the contest.

He said: "Hearts did a good job on us. We played all right. The referee was not at his best tonight.

"Why do all the cards come at the end of the game when it suits Hearts to break the rhythm of the game?

"They defended well to be fair but stoppage after stoppage after stoppage doesn't suit us at that stage of the game.

"Card after card after card is too late, bring your cards out earlier and control the game."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Ronnie Esplin, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'acbb1365-695c-4a60-9d70-59d68e3c6cb8');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Levein highlights \u201Cmoments of real quality\u201D after win at Kilmarnock'});