After scoring his 4th league goal of the season against Dundee, Kieron Bowie referenced the “added incentive” of joining Steve Clarke’s Scotland World Cup squad.
Speaking with the media after Hibernian’s 2-0 win over Dundee, Bowie referenced the importance of getting back to “basics” after a brief stint out of David Gray’s starting eleven:
“When we played Livingston, I came out of the team, and he was just sort of reinforcing that it wasn’t performance-based. It was just a freshening up.
“Since then, I’ve been back in the team, just trying to do the basics again, really like the start of the season, just trying to get back into that groove of things and being confident myself and taking shots more than I’m passing it, and thankfully, it paid off today.”
The Hibs’ number 9 opened the scoring against Dundee. After taking a clever touch, he drilled a low strike past the helpless Jon McCracken on the half-hour mark.
“Early on I felt like I couldn’t score. I missed from a yard out, which was almost impossible, but it happened, and it’s just about bouncing back after that. Just sort of got to laugh it off.
“You’re judged on scoring goals, but the gaffer has obviously said that I’m doing everything that he wants me to do, and that’s obviously on my mind; that’s a positive.
I want to keep scoring as many goals as I can, and hopefully I can continue to keep doing that”
Bowie, like the entire nation, had watched Scotland’s monumental victory over Denmark to qualify for the World Cup next year. The young striker was upbeat despite missing out on the squad.
“He (Steve Clarke) phoned me the night before just to let me know, so there wasn’t a surprise which was good.
I’ve just got to get on with it and keep doing what I’m doing for the next one, so I can be in it, obviously, to watch the game. It was amazing for everybody. But yeah, you want to be there, like I said, and hopefully I can be in the next one.”
It was unbelievable to watch it. Obviously, you want to be there to experience it. But unfortunately, that has not happened this time.
It’s just an added incentive, we’ve got an amazing squad, good forwards, and it’ll be tough to get back in there, but I just need to keep doing here, and hopefully it’s just an added bonus.”
Hibernian return to Scottish Premiership action on Tuesday evening against Motherwell at Fir Park, before hosting Celtic next Sunday.
