Christian Doidge urges Hibernian to turn around league form and target Europe

Christian Doidge has called on Hibernian to sort out their league form and ensure their supporters have more big European nights to look forward to.

The Edinburgh side reached the Conference League play-off round with victories over Andorran side Inter d’Escaldes and Swiss outfit Luzern before losing 8-0 on aggregate to Aston Villa.

Hibs’ 2,200 travelling fans enjoyed the glamour trip to Villa Park on Thursday even though their managerless side lost the second leg 3-0.

But now the Hibees return to domestic matters as they prepare to travel to Aberdeen on Sunday sitting bottom of the cinch Premiership after losing each of their first three matches.

Doidge is determined to ensure things pick up soon so the club’s supporters can sample more European nights next term.

“It was great, to play in Europe is an amazing feeling, it doesn’t come around too often in your career so you’ve got to try and take it with both hands,” the striker told Hibs TV.

“We’ve been good and we’ve been bad (in Europe). To go to Aston Villa, we were able to give the Hibs fans an experience they probably haven’t had for a long time.

“We all enjoyed it and we’ve got to push now in the league and try and make it a regular occurrence.”

Despite the defeat on Thursday, Doidge feels there were enough positives for his side to take into the Aberdeen match.

“I felt like we were quite good,” he said. “We were compact and hard to play through.

“We were playing against a high-quality side but they probably didn’t get in as much as they would have liked.

“The Aberdeen game’s going to be completely different. It will be tough. They obviously played on Thursday as well. It’s always a hard game when you go up there but I think we’ve got enough in the changing room to get a good result.”

Hibs will check on Jordan Obita after he was forced off through injury on Thursday, while Dylan Levitt, Chris Cadden, Harry McKirdy and Jojo Wollacott are all still out.