Josh Doig in Scottish football defence case as former Hibs star says Serie A hasn't been 'the biggest step up ever'

Josh Doig says he's been surprised by how favourably Scottish football compares to Serie A.

The Hellas Verona left-back has hit the ground running since his move to Hibs with six goal-involvements in 19 games 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 and he's been rewarded with another Scotland call-up for upcoming clashes with Cyprus and Spain.

The 20-year-old's rise has been rapid but he says he's been able to adapt to life in Italy quicker than expected. That's because Serie A isn't the monumental step up from the SPFL that he expected, insisting Scottish football gets an unfair rap. Doig was speaking as part of the Scotland National Team's Forza Scozia documentary and 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."

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