TOM TAIWO is the personification of perseverance.

A career path that began with unfulfilled promise at Chelsea has gradually meandered north, first to Carlisle United and then, last summer, to Hibernian. That he will likely feature in this weekend's William Hill Scottish Cup final against Celtic suggests the 23 year-old is moving in the right direction.

Being part of the first Hibs team to lift the trophy for 111 years would result in legendary status being instantly bestowed upon him but Taiwo is not content just to settle for that. The midfielder sees the careers forged by the likes of Scott Sinclair, Jack Cork, Michael Mancienne and Liam Bridcutt, all former colleagues in the Chelsea youth set-up, and harbours an ambition to one day return to that kind of level himself.

There is no bitterness about his failure to make it at Stamford Bridge, no using the broken leg he sustained shortly before his youth-team debut as an excuse for having to subsequently resuscitate his career at less glamorous locations. Instead there is a hope and a belief that a combination of hard work and talent will eventually deliver the future in football he desires.

"When people ask me [if I am happy where I am], I always refer to what my nana tells me: 'The cream always rises to the top'," he said. "If I'm good enough, I will find my level and hopefully that will be as soon as possible. I have a good work ethic and give my best all the time. I put in extra work after training and if I did make it back to the dizzy heights of Chelsea, I will have deserved it. I broke my leg the week before I was due to make my youth-team debut, but to be frank, if I had been good enough at time Chelsea would not have let me go.

"I had some learning to do and I feel every experience I've had has helped me up until now. I just enjoy playing football and when it didn't happen at Chelsea my next aim was to make a career out of doing what I enjoy doing and I got that chance at Carlisle. Since then I have just tried to improve every season. I have made a progression every season at Carlisle and coming here, getting to the Scottish Cup final is another progression on that ladder."

Not everyone saw his decision to move to Edinburgh last summer as a good thing, most notably Greg Abbott, his former manager at Carlisle, who thought Taiwo had been badly advised and would regret the switch. The player points towards his date at Hampden this Sunday and suggests things haven't turned out too badly at all.

"He was critical but I don't think they've had a great season. They were fighting relegation most of the time. I'll let him do the talking and I'll just enjoy my football. He must not have been up to Hibernian before. He's not been here on a derby day when 17,000 fans are going bananas. He hasn't seen the fantastic facilities and you wouldn't often get the chance to play in an FA Cup final with Carlisle United.

"I've really enjoyed my first season up here. I think I've improved as the season has gone and found my feet steadily. Hopefully the fans will think I've found a little bit of form in the closing stages of the season."

For a relatively young man, Taiwo has crammed plenty into his career. In his time with Carlisle, he played in two Football League Trophy finals at Wembley, losing the first to Southampton before returning a year later as part of the team that beat Brentford. He hopes his story will give Hibs hope as they look to similarly bounce back from losing heavily in a cup final to prosper 12 months on.

"We played poorly against Southampton," he recalled. "Things like suit hire and what shoes we were going to wear, things that had nothing to do with the football, took over. It was the first time a lot of us had been to Wembley. Tickets were playing on people's minds as well.

"The next time around, everything like that was put to one side and it was purely football we focused on and although we were up against a lesser team, the outcome was a lot better. It's very difficult when you are a club like Carlisle and get to something so prestigious. You want every detail to be the right – the suits, how you are going to turn up at the game, where you are going to stay. But the second time around, because we had done it the year before, the novelty had worn off and we could focus on winning the game."