Former Rangers star Greg Docherty says he's grateful for the opportunity to play for his boyhood heroes, but admits he's playing catch-up in his career because of it.
A League One winner with Hull City last season, Docherty is in a good place right now.
But after spending two years at Rangers, with successful loan spells at Shrewsbury Town and Hibs, before leaving for Hull in 2020, Doc admits he's only just coming out the other side.
"Looking back at my Rangers career, it's one that I can say was a real learning curve for me," the former Hamilton Accies midfielder told Lanarkshire Live Sport .
"I think I went through everything there.
"When I came in I was straight in at the deep end, which is what I wanted, and things were going great.
"Then all of a sudden they turned a wee bit sour, with results, different people leaving the club, people not wanting to be there, and then it was a rebuild.
"It was one I was really excited for, but I pushed for the decision that I wanted to go and get regular games, so I had a really positive loan [at Shrewsbury].
"I was coming back to a team that was really starting to kick on again, but the midfield was probably the strongest bit of the club, so it was really hard to break down and that's sometimes just football.
"It's a tough one, because I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I feel that I'm now maybe playing a bit of catch-up, just because I spent six months trying to get into the team before I went to Hibs, and that was cut short by Covid.
"That has affected everyone, not just me, but I feel that maybe there is a bit of catch-up."
A convincing 3-1 win over Wigan Athletic back in May saw Grant McCann's Hull crowned league champions for the first time in 55 years, and Docherty admits the Championship has been a personal target of his for some time.
The 24-year-old said: "Now, I'm just grateful that I took the chance to come to Hull in League One, they've got a lot of faith in me, and thankfully we both repaid each other.
"I got a lot of games under my belt and we got promoted into the Championship, which is the first league title for the club in 55 years, so it turned out to be a positive.
"And now I'm going to be playing in the Championship.
"It's a league that I wanted to be in, that I've been trying to get to for such a long time and it's one that I probably would have pushed to try and get to, if the opportunity at Rangers never came about."
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