There's a single-mindedness about Kieron Bowie.

For a 21-year-old, he could hardly be clearer about why he knew it was time to leave Fulham, why he chose Hibs, and what he wants to achieve in Edinburgh. The very preliminary evidence is that his confidence isn't misplaced. The forward was perhaps the only bright spark in last week's defeat to Celtic, coming within a crossbar's width of scoring a rather remarkable debut goal having barrelled the usually unflappable Cameron Carter-Vickers to the floor.

Bowie was among David Gray's top targets this summer, the head coach repeatedly proclaiming himself a fan of the former Raith Rovers youth, who has honed his game in the sink-or-swim surroundings of England's lower tiers. But having spent two seasons on loan at Northampton Town with no first-team pathway at Craven Cottage in sight, getting the call from Hibs was the moment he never knew he was waiting for.

Now, though, he's certain it was the right decision for his career and young family, his plans to transition from versatile forward to recognised central striker, and to fulfil his senior international ambitions with Scotland.

"Yeah, I've developed out wide and played out wide but now I think it's time to start playing through the middle," said Bowie.  "I can supply myself well through there and as long as there's people out wide able to put crosses in I hope I can get as many goals as I can. There's a lot of players from the Scottish Premier League that do play for Scotland whereas if I was to stay down south in League 1, there's not many eyes on that league to hopefully get myself breaking through.

"There is a pathway from Hibs to the Scotland first team and hopefully that can be me in the future. They've said they want to give me the platform to play the best football I can and hopefully I can repay them as well. As I've already said, Scotland's first team, that's them in the future and that's what I want to do. I've spoken to Malky Mackay and he's said 'you're coming here to play, you're not going to just be in and out'. We've bought you. so you're coming to play and they believe in me and they believe in my ability."

Bowie left Kirkcaldy as a 17-year-old in 2020, having already made his senior debut for Raith at 16. Following two years in Fulham's academy, which he says was vital in bringing out the technical side of his game, he was loaned to Northampton Town in League Two.

Bowie's expectations of an initially bit-part role were subverted in making 40 appearances, and the arrangement was so beneficial to all parties he returned the following year, this time with the Cobblers having moved up into League One. It's set him up with almost a century of appearances in senior football from which to take this next step, one he believes will take him to another level.

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"I was at Fulham under-18s, under-21s, but I thought I need to go and do something somewhere else," said Bowie. And that's why I went on loan to Northampton and it went a lot better than what I thought it would. The first season was obviously League Two and I wasn't expecting to play as much as I did. I went on to play 40 odd games and I was delighted with that. I just sort of had to build on it from there. I knew if I went back there to the league above I would play and the manager said I would play.

"So I just had to get as many games as I could and obviously I'm only 21 still and I've played almost 100 EFL games. So I'm happy with that and hopefully we can just build on that and continue to improve. League Two is totally different to League One. League Two is a lot rougher, just a lot of long balls and stuff. Whereas League One, you've got your Portsmouths, all of them that like to play football and it's a lot more fast-paced, technical game. But yeah, there's a lot of experienced pros in those leagues that have played 500 games, 400 games that you come up against that know every trick in the book. And you're trying to get the better of them."