297 Kevin Kyle

Position : Forward

Played : 2000-01  (on  loan  from  Sunderland)

Appearances : 6

Goals : 0

Kevin was the fourth and final borrowed striker , this time from Sunderland. The 19-year old had previously had loan spells at Huddersfield and Darlington where he scored his first League goal.

Kevin was an old- fashioned centre forward but was mainly deployed in a three–striker formation. He was certainly a good grafter but looked like he couldn’t hit a barn door when he got a chance.


His subsequent career suggests it may have been the way Parkin used him that was the problem. After returning to Sunderland he started getting more first team chances and a call up to the full Scotland side in 2002 ; to date he has 10 caps and one international goal. In 2003-04 he was Sunderland’s joint top scorer with 16 goals. He was then out of the game for nearly 18 months with a serious hip injury returning to action in 2006 when Sunderland were in the Premiership but doomed at the bottom. He managed to chalk up one goal before they went down. In the summer he moved to Coventry for £600,000 but wasn’t a success there managing just 5 goals in 44 appearances with the crowd on his back. In 2008 he went on loan to Wolves scoring once in 12 games although Kevin has subsequently admitted that Mick McCarthy wouldn’t sign him because of his gambling addiction. The following season he had a more successful loan spell at Hartlepool where he scored 5 in 15 appearances. Coventry released him in January 2009 and he signed for Kilmarnock where he was an instant success, singlehandedly keeping them in the SPL with crucial goals and winning a recall to the Scotland side. At the beginning of this season he followed manager Jim Jeffries to Hearts and is doing well with 7 goals in 19 appearances so far.