Former Hibs defender Josh Doig makes Scottish Premiership and Serie A comparison

Former Hibs full-back Josh Doig insists Serie A isn’t as big a step up from the Scottish Premiership as he expected.

The 20-year-old reckons the Scottish game doesn’t deserve a “bad name” and feels he had adapted “fairly quickly” in his first season in Italy’s top flight.

The Hellas Verona left-back has hit the ground running in his 19 appearences since his move from Hibs, despite his side struggling to get points on the board. Along with Lewis Ferguson, he's the latest in a long line of Scots to take the leap of faith from the SPFL to Italy.

Doig, who came through the youth ranks at hearts before switching to Hibs when Aaron Hickey was ahead of him in Gorgoe, says he's been able to adapt to life in Italy quicker than expected. He believes that is because Serie A isn't the enormous step up from the Scottish Premiership that others make it out to be.

Hellas Verona's Josh Doig has enjoyed life in Serie A so far

Speaking as part of the Scotland National Team's Forza Scozia documentary, Doig said: "Football-wise, I was expecting the biggest leap up in standard. To be fair, Scottish football gets a bad name for the standard of play but I think it doesn't deserve it. It was a step up but it wasn't the biggest step up ever. I feel like I adapted to it fairly quickly.

“Getting up to the pace of training, my legs struggled a bit, I picked up a few niggles, but I got an assist when I came on against Empoli. After that, I started against Sampdoria, scored the winner, it was a dream start. That kind of started it off, it was the confidence booster to keep going. But that's a special memory for me."