The midfielder scored his first goal of the season against Kilmarnock

Laughing whilst running off to celebrate, Jorge Grant knew his first Hearts goal of the season was probably his most bizarre ever. He barely needed to jump to head his team’s third in Saturday’s 3-2 victory as Kilmarnock goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara failed to collect a straightforward dropping ball. Grant didn’t complain and simply took the adulation.

After some difficult moments this season, including a red card at Pittodrie in October and a penalty saved at the same venue earlier this month, the midfielder was due some good fortune. He slid in with the Kilmarnock defender Robbie Deas for Blair Spittal’s low cross, the ball spun high into the air and Grant stood up to challenge the emerging O’Hara more in hope than expectation.

“I was on the deck, yeah, I just tried to get up,” he explained. “I saw the ball was in the air for ages so I just tried to get up and get in amongst him and luckily got a nick on it. I was surprised. I was laughing when I was running off to be fair. Yeah, but nice to score. I’ve never outjumped a goalie before. It feels good to get off the mark. Spitts was crossing it, I just tried to run in at the front post, missed it, and then it just seemed like the ball was in the air for ages, so I tried to get in and around the keeper and luckily it's gone in.”

The 30-year-old acknowledged that the penalty against Aberdeen hasn’t been erased from memory. “Yeah, obviously that was disappointing. I'd scored my last three pens so I was always confident stepping up. It's one of those things. Sometimes you miss them, sometimes you score them. To get the goal and the win on Saturday was important.”

Having taken time to force his way into the team under head coach Neil Critchley, Grant has now played from the start in Hearts’ last six matches. Four wins and two draws from that run have helped build momentum. “When the gaffer came in for the first sort of, I can't remember what it was, 14 or 15 games, I didn't start one,” said the Englishman. “Now I’ve started the last six and we haven't lost, so in that sense I feel like I've helped the team out as much as I can.

“Obviously getting the goal will help but I've played in different positions in those six games as well, so it's nice to be getting minutes. I wouldn't say it [the unbeaten run] is down to me, you know. I just feel like we've been more together, we've been more solid defensively - other than the Ross County game and on Saturday. We conceded two quite poor goals but we can learn from those moments and get better at that.”

Perhaps the most important outcome from the weekend for anyone connected with Tynecastle is that Hearts are now out of the Premiership’s relegation zone. Aspirations of reaching the top six are now far more realistic, and even third place is being whispered about. “Yeah, it seems like when we win and everyone else around us is winning as well, it's really tight,” said Grant, speaking at full-time on Saturday.

“You've only got to look at it now. It's 10 points to third, I think, three to the top six, so we keep winning games. We're only looking forward so we just need to be positive. It [top six] is achievable. We've had a poor start to the season but I feel like we're starting to turn that corner now so yeah, hopefully we can carry on this run and keep pushing forward. I think you can look at a lot of teams in this league and if you go on a run you just climb the table. You just keep going and going and going, so hopefully we can do that now and keep pushing forward.”

Grant remains uncertain about his long-term future as his Hearts contract heads towards expiry at the end of the season. “I’ve had no discussions with the club,” he admitted. “As I said, I'll always concentrate on my football and try and help the team as much as possible, and that will come if the club want to talk about it. I'm always open to talk about it.”