£5m former Hibs favourite nets stunning strike in eight-goal second division thriller

Former Hibs star Josh Doig is playing a leading role in Sassuolo’s bid to return to Serie A at the first attempt.

The former Scotland Under-21 left-back first moved to Italy to join Hellas Verona in a £3m deal during the summer of 2022 and moved to Serie A rivals Sassuolo in a £4.5m agreement last January in a move to handed a financial boost to Hibs. Despite some positive performances, Doig was unable to prevent his new side from sliding into Italian football’s second tier as they ended the season six points adrift of safety.

Despite that disappointment, Fabio Grosso’s side have enjoyed a largely positive season so far and have lost just two of their 22 league games during the first half of the campaign. Their impressive form continued on Sunday as they came out on top in an eight-goal thriller against Sudtirol. In a remarkable opening quarter of an hour, Doig’s side found themselves a goal down after an equaliser from Italy international Domenico Berardi was sandwiched by efforts from visitors duo Raphael Odogwu and Niklas Pyyhtia.

However, it was Doig that stole the show with a stunning-long range effort that restored parity ten minutes into the second-half as the former Hibs man strolled forward from left-back before unleashing a swerving shot that sailed into the top left-hand corner of Giacomo Poluzzi’s net. Sassuolo went on to claim a 5-3 win as Daniel Boloca, Armaud Lauriente and Cristian Volpato all found the net during the final half-hour. But it was Doig’s strike that has captured the attention of social media users across a number of platforms after the left-back grabbed his first goal for Sassuolo in some style.

In racking up another memorable moment after swapping life at Easter Road for a move to Serie A almost three years ago, Doig has shown he is fully settled into life in Italy and alluded to the fact during an interview last year.

Speaking last year about his time in Italy, he told The Times: “I think away from football, the two sides I've played for (in Italy) I’ve loved the cities and it's been amazing. It's two different kind of cultures, two different cuisines as well and I think that's one thing I'll probably never, ever get anywhere else that is as good as the food here in Italy.

"It's unbelievable. It's too good. When I went home, during the international break, it just wasn't the same, I’m like a proper food snob now [laughs], nothing was good enough. I think that people dream of doing what I’m doing, so the fact that I get to do it and play my hobby as a job but at the same time live in Italy, I'm very lucky."

Sunday’s win ensured Sassuolo remained five points clear at the top of the Serie B table and Doig and his team-mates will return to action with a visit to Spezia on Friday night.