OTD: KEVIN KYLE DEBUT

On this day in 2001, Kevin Kyle made his debut for Sunderland in a 1-0 win away to Southampton. He came through our youth ranks and made 109 appearances for the club.

The Scotsman was a part of the Ayr United academy before joining Sunderland’s in 1998. He had big boots to fill, considering the fans were used to seeing players like Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips upfront. The year Super Kev scored 30 Premier League goals as Europe's top scorer, Kyle neted 24 times in 23 Under-19s games. He had some brief loan spells at Huddersfield, Darlington, and Rochdale before finally getting to play regularly for Sunderland.

Randomly, the forward made his full debut for Scotland before making his full SAFC debut. So, he was clearly making himself known but just couldn't break into our starting XI at the time.

‘Kyler’ didn’t score his first goal until the Lads were in the Championship. He was not quite cut out for the top flight, but certainly a good option to have in the second tier. He scored in both playoff legs against Crystal Palace in 03/04, but that wasn’t enough to send the Lads to Wembley. Despite this, it was still Kyle’s best season because he scored 16 goals in all competitions. It was the only one of seven seasons at SAFC in which he managed double figures.

He was eventually sold to Coventry in 2006, for a reported fee of £600,000 and he did not have the best of times at the Sky Blues. However, he did score in his debut against Norwich City. Kyle only scored five goals for Coventry.

After brief loan spells at Wolves and Hartlepool, Kyle finally returned to Scotland when he signed for Kilmarnock. He bagged 16 goals and earned a move to Hearts. After a solid year in Edinburgh, the forward moved to Scottish giants Rangers. He only featured eight times, before ending his career where it started at Ayr United. Unfortunately, Kyle’s career was cut short due to an injury and he retired at 31.

After retiring, Kyle worked as a storeman on a ship in the Shetland Islands for two years, doing 18-day stints of 12-hour shifts as a room-keeper on the MS Regina Baltica cruiseferry. He earned £800 a fortnight and in his words: "Life was pretty shit".

Kevin later worked in the oil industry and became a baggage handler on ferries between Cainryan, near his Stanraer birthplace, and Northern Ireland. He's also pretty good at darts!