Yesterday The Record posted another piece of appalling Ibrox feel-good rot.

My friend and colleague, Eric Knott, drew my attention yesterday to one of the most absurd examples of so-called sports journalism that we’ve seen in a while.

We all know what the Daily Record is, what it does, and who it caters for.

It’s an outlet for the club across the city, no matter how much even their own fans might deride it.

The article in question, written by the ever-awful Ronnie Copeland, was about Manchester City’s goalkeeper Ederson and his success last season. The claim? That it was somehow based on watching a clip of Allan McGregor saving a penalty. As Eric pointed out, the article was so poor it couldn’t even get basic facts right. The writer was clueless on the details, and worse, there seemed to be no editorial oversight to catch the mistakes.

Now, I make mistakes on this site all the time. But I’m a one-man operation, working hard every day, and things do sometimes slip through the cracks. I use an autocorrection program, which occasionally changes words and can cause confusion. I also tend to write some of tomorrow’s work today, so from time to time it can look like I’m mixing up dates. I miss things often, and I rely on you, my readers, to let me know when I’ve made an error.

But national newspapers aren’t supposed to have such glaring mistakes. There are supposed to be editors, sub-editors, and others who keep the writers in check.

Yet, as I’ve said before, industry standards have plummeted across the media, and nowhere is this more evident than in Scotland’s sports press, which still treats its readers with contempt. If they didn’t, there would be standards in place. Instead, they assume the readers won’t spot mistakes anyway, so why bother?

The article itself is desperate and reeks. It’s the sort of piece a student newspaper would turn down, based on a complete non-event. The article features what it even calls a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment in a Man City documentary where someone has spotted that Ederson was watching a clip of Allan McGregor saving a penalty taken by Odsonne Edouard for Celtic.

As you might recall, their next opponent was Crystal Palace.

It’s obvious that Ederson wasn’t studying McGregor’s save.

The man plays for one of the best clubs in the world; if there’s anything he needs to learn about goalkeeping, it’s not coming from an ex-Ibrox has-been.

What he was really watching was Edouard’s penalty, which is what goalkeepers do when preparing to face an opponent. They study how penalty takers shoot, and this happens all the time. There was no story here, no headline to make, and yet they still managed to churn it out.

The article was crafted purely for Ibrox fan sites, giving them a little something to feel good about—a way to link their club to the success of others.

It’s dire, it’s desperate, and it’s pathetic. I get that international weeks can be slow for news, but I publish five articles a day and never feel the need to scrape the bottom of the barrel like that.

Over on that site, it’s just a relentless stream of absolute garbage, day after day. It’s a prime example of why the Scottish sports media is in decline.

No quality control, no standards, no oversight—just a constant churn of nonsense.

Thanks to Eric for bringing this piece to my attention and for dismantling it so thoroughly.

And thanks to him for sending it my way so I could share in the horror of it.