You can gauge the greatness of a spectacular long-range strike in several ways.
There are the prosaic measurements of speed, distance and the apex which the ball reaches. You may well factor in the stage on which it is executed and its importance in the context of a game.
Kieron Bowie’s outrageous dipping strike against FK Partizan on Thursday ticked every box.
The Hibs forward was closer to 40 yards from goal than 30 when he took aim. His left foot seemed to send the ball halfway to the moon before it landed in the top-right corner. Without it, Hibs’ hopes of reaching the play-off round of the Conference League were fading.
Perhaps the best assessment of a moment no one present will ever forget came from the man of the moment.
‘I think their goalie was speaking to Martin Boyle after the game, asking why I shot,’ revealed Bowie. ‘So, that just sums it up really.’
Kieron Bowie lit up Easter Road with a spectacular strike in the win over Partizan Belgrade
The 22-year-old was mobbed by his team-mates after putting his side ahead on aggregate
Andrej Kostic struck from close range in the 95th minute to send the tie in to extra-time
It certainly did. When Bowie rolled two opponents while contesting a long punt up the field, there wasn’t a man, woman or child in the 19,377 crowd who considered that beating Marko Milosevic was even a vague possibility.
It was a truly astonishing strike, one which many present will never have seen bettered and probably never will.
‘I didn’t feel like I needed to make something happen,’ insisted Bowie. ‘But, at half-time, Sammy (goalkeeping coach Craig Samson) spoke to me, telling me there was a goal in this for me. I didn’t think it would be like that.
‘I’ve obviously shielded two of them off, and then it’s just sat up lovely and I’ve just hit it. And I’ll never do that again, probably.
‘When it went in, it felt unbelievable. The whole crowd erupted. Everyone was going mental on the bench, so I ran over there. Everyone was surrounding me. That was amazing.’
While it was worthy of winning any game, that honour in fact would fall to Chris Cadden.
On a night brimming with drama, Bowie’s goal only nudged his side ahead on aggregate after a pair of unfathomable errors in the first half from goalkeeper Jordan Smith.
Reduced to 10 men, Partizan’s young side showed incredible spirit to level in the 95th minute and take the tie the distance.
Chris Cadden clinched the winner after following up Josh Mulligan’s deflected effort
Many a Hibs team of the past would have been flummoxed by that. But the one David Gray has moulded is made of sterner stuff.
‘I mean, they score like, what, five seconds before the end?’ asked Bowie. ‘And my head’s gone. Like, I’m just shouting into the sky.
‘But we showed the character that we’ve had throughout. You’ve seen that, back to Aberdeen when we drew 3-3 here.’
Even without a goal which has immediately entered Hibs’ folklore, Bowie’s display was outstanding.
There were two moments in the first half where he left his station, tracked back and regained possession with clean sliding tackles.
Sat high in the main stand, Scotland manager Steve Clarke would have been impressed with everything the man from Kirkcaldy did. The first cap Bowie won in Liechtenstein in June will not be his last as the World Cup qualifiers come into view.
‘I feel like that’s a big thing, winning tackles, tracking back,’ reflected the 22-year-old. ‘That boosts the crowd.
‘I feel like I just need to try and put myself in that shop window (for Scotland) and hopefully I can keep doing that.
Goalkeeper Jordan Smith recovered from two costly errors to make a string of vital stops
‘As the weeks go on, I’m playing more and more games, getting into my sharpness.
‘I feel like I’m getting there, I’m almost fully fit now. You can see in my performances, it’s not as slack as what I was last season.’
None of this has come easy. Bowie started out as a 16-year-old in League One with hometown team Raith Rovers.
A move to Fulham followed but he moved on loan to Northampton to get the first-team football he craved.
There were huge expectations when Hibs paid a ‘significant fee’ for him a year ago, but the four months he spent out with a serious hamstring injury was a desperate setback. This now feels like his moment.
‘I’m definitely improving as my games go on,’ he added. ‘I’m just constantly trying to play as many games as I can and I’ve done that. That’s six starts in a row now and hopefully it can continue.’
Under contract until 2028, the sky’s the limit in terms of what he might achieve in his time in Leith.
Capable of holding the ball up, blessed with game awareness and an eye for goal, he’s a formidable talent whose reputation is starting to precede him.
Manager David Gray could barely contain his emotions after seeing his side get over the line
The fact that the Serbs had a man sent off for fouls against him home and away is taken as a backhanded compliment.
‘In the first leg, they tried to stay off me a little bit,’ said Bowie. ‘And then they get a bit angry because they’re not getting the ball and then they make silly fouls. That gives me a chance to go at them and I thrive on that.
‘They were scared to try and get too tight on me, because I could just turn them. Over both legs, that was very important to get us up the pitch.’
The significance of the aggregate win was lost on no one. In this, the club’s 150th anniversary season and 70 years on since reaching the semi-final of the first European Cup, this is a result which would have met with resounding approval from the legends of yesteryear.
Legia Warsaw await in a shoot-out which comes with the prize of group-stage football.
They don’t come bigger than that. Which is precisely how Bowie likes it.
‘Nights like that are half the reason I came to this club, to get in Europe,’ he said.
‘We set ourselves the target of getting European group-stage football, no matter whether that was Europa or Conference League. Hopefully we can continue to have more big nights.’
