DUMBARTON midfielder Jon Routledge insists he has seen little difference in standards since his move to the Championship outfit from Premiership side Hamilton Accies.

The 25-year-old made his first move into part-time football with Sons in the summer after his fourth spell with Accies came to an end.

Since making the move he has become an integral part of manager Stevie Aitken’s side in a holding midfield role.

Following last week’s League Cup ties which pitted several Championship teams against Premiership opposition — with a mix of results — the debate has raged around Scottish football about the difference in standard.

As top division sides Celtic, St Johnstone, Inverness Caley Thistle and Ross County claimed wins over second tier clubs Raith Rovers, Rangers, Livingston and Falkirk respectively. Hibs and Morton flew the flag for the Championship by beating Aberdeen and Motherwell.

Routledge has now weighed in with his view, despite dropping down a division he insists he has seen little in the way of a drop in quality.

He said: “No it is definitely not a massive step down.

“I’ve played in the Championship for a couple of years before I came to Dumbarton, most of the lads here have played at a higher level so we have some good players in terms of our squad.

“There are a lot of good players in the other teams as well so I don’t think there is much between the two divisions, apart from the top teams.” The Scouser started his football career in the Liverpool academy before moving to Wigan Athletic in 2007, accepting professional terms with the Lactics the following year, making his English Premiership debut against Portsmouth in 2009.

In 2010/11 he spent his first season on loan at Accies, after a short stint at Swedish side Osterunds FK — despite it only lasting a couple of months that spell has not put him off moving abroad in future should the opportunity arise.

He signed for Billy Reid’s Accies the following year before moving to Stockport County.

A return to New Douglas Park wasn’t far away as he signed another loan deal before making a permanent move to the full-time club in 2012 where he stayed until his switch to the Rock.

Routledge made over 100 appearances at Hamilton, helping them to promotion from the Championship in 2013/2014 under Alex Neil.

Having worked under the current Norwich boss as well as Everton manager Roberto Martinez and Hull chief Steve Bruce while at Wigan, Routledge has been impressed with his current gaffer at the Rock and believes Sons can go far under Aitken. He said: “I was over in Sweden for a couple of months, it was a weird one. There was some connection with the clubs, I think Roberto Martinez knew someone over there. It was a good experience to be honest but it was only a little town, it was hard at times because there wasn’t a lot to do. But it was good to see a different way of doing things.

“I’ve always wondered about going abroad in the future, it was obviously just have to be the right thing at the right time, I’d be open to it though.

“I trained with the first team now and then under Steve Bruce and Roberto Martinez at Wigan. Alex Neil was the first coach I had where I was training and playing every week.

“Stevie Aitken has a lot of drive and he has done well so far, so I think he’ll do well in the game. We had a good start then results dipped. We’ve started to find our feet a bit more performance wise so I think if we can get a couple of good results in the coming weeks we will have had a good start.”