He is chairman of one of the two Scottish football clubs currently being held up to international ridicule after a less than complimentary report of their weekend Scottish Cup tie appeared in The Herald and on heraldscotland.com - and was promoted by the global news aggregator Buzzfeed.

Jim Ballantyne, chairman of Airdrie, has voiced dissent about the report by Callum Baird on Saturday's game against Morton, which ended 0-0.

Baird described it as "90 minutes of the most tedious, excruciating football imaginable", ending the article: "The poor crowd, shell-shocked as they wandered out, were left to contemplate these five chilling words: there will be a replay."

His report is currently the Best Read story on heraldscotland.com, and was celebrated by Buzzfeed, helping drive an audience of tens of thousands of online readers.

But Ballantyne, who has been chairman of Airdrie since 2002 when he bought out Clydebank and effectively took their place in the old Second Division, after the original Airdrieonians went out of business with heavy debts, is determined to defend his club...by going on the counter-attack.

In a letter to The Herald, he writes: "Football is all about opinions and Callum is certainly entitled to his, as are we all. He is quite clear that the game was not very good however the entire tone of the article is very disappointing.

"Is it Airdrie he doesn't like, Morton or both? Or is it just huffy??

"For what it is worth, my own mind conjures up the picture of a 'journalist' sitting at the game with his hood up, gutted that he didn't get a 'big game' and deciding to write a literary masterpiece as his match report to cheer himself up. By doing so, he has felt the need to just blatantly insult professional footballers trying to do their job to the best of their ability.

"Forgive me if I treat him likewise! By his own admission, there was nothing happening in the game bar two incidents and as a result I could not help but spit my tea out when he even managed to get the most important one spectacularly wrong.

There was another rare moment of excitement when Joe McKee was shown a straight red card after he slid in, studs up, on Morton's Luca Gasparotto - on loan from Rangers - and left him writhing on the turf in agony. It perked up the crowd for a moment - something had happened!

"It would indeed have been a rare moment if Morton's McKee had been sent off for a shocking challenge on Morton's Gasparotto!! It would clearly have been an epic moment but for the fact that Luca is actually the Airdrieonians player. But why let the facts get in the way of a Chinese history lesson. (This has since been amended in the original article)

"Also (heraldscotland) is quite clear in its rules re replies to articles (on the comments forum): '.... don't resort to childish insults or unfair comparisons.

"I would have thought that we would be afforded the same courtesy so I would appreciate your thoughts on this 'childish insult':

Even Airdrie's strip was a blight on the eyes, the kind of garish bright pink that could make a man weep simply through prolonged exposure.

"Callum was crystal clear in his damning of the performances of both sets of players at their work on Saturday, well right back at ya Callum!!!

Regards, Jim Ballantyne, Chairman, Airdrieonians FC

Baird said in response to Ballantyne's letter: "Jim's quite right to point out this glitch in the report, for which we apologise. I'm already looking forward to the possibility of covering the replay..and I might see Jim there."