The Daily Record’s Post-Split Fixture “Prediction” Is Embarrassing Uninformed Rubbish.

Last night, The Daily Record produces one of its pieces of embarrassing claptrap, the sort of stuff that makes that newspaper a running joke amongst Scottish football fans.

It never ceases to amaze me that this publication is still respected as a primary source south of the border and its writers treated as if they are knowledgeable people.

The “story” they put up was about how Ibrox might get a wee lift when the post-split fixtures are published later in the week. Ibrox has 17 games at home in the league and we have 16.

The Record “speculated” that we could end the season with 18 at home, because we’ve played three of the teams at home already, and Ibrox could get 20 games at home because they’ve played three of their possible sides away.

The ignorance behind this rubbish is off the charts. In a close title race, we know exactly what will happen here; what has happened to our club and theirs since they reached the top flight. Both sides will play an equal number of home games. That’s the fact of it.

Both sides will play 19. That’s the way the fixture system works. Ibrox will play an extra game away, we will play an extra game at home. That’s the reality, and it does not matter what spin The Record attempts to put on that. Furthermore, everyone knows this is the case. Even the Ibrox fan forums are reconciled to it and accept it.

I don’t like the system. I hate it, in fact.

The split is ridiculous. The split should be scrapped.

The split exists because nobody in Scotland is willing to accept a 44 game season, and rather than do what would be regarded as the sensible thing – swapping to a ten team league and play a straight 36 with two games against every side at home and another two away – they’ve arrived at that number artificially, by creating this absurd option.

“It makes the league more exciting!” is the claim. No, it actually doesn’t.

There have been a handful of close title races since it was implemented. Furthermore, it robs the teams in the bottom six of having an impact on the run-in. The last two teams to beat the Ibrox club – Motherwell and Ross County – are in the bottom half. It’s a shocking system.

But it is the system we’ve got, and this is how it has worked for years.

How The Record’s “writers” don’t know this, how they don’t go back and check what’s happened in previous campaigns, I do not know.

It’s utter laziness, but worse, it’s utter contempt for their audience. That their editorial staff allowed that nonsense to be published really shows how much they take their readers for mugs.