BORN ON THIS DAY: KEVIN KYLE

Born on this day in 1981 is former Sunderland centre-forward Kevin Kyle. He came through the academy and made 91 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. He had some brief loan spells at Huddersfield, Darlington, and Rochdale before finally getting to play regularly for Sunderland.

‘Kyler’ didn’t score his first goal until the Lads were in the Championship. He was clearly not cut out for the top flight, but was a good option to have in the second tier. He scored in both playoff legs against Crystal Palace, 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 Cairnryan, near his Stranraer birthplace, in Scotland. He's also pretty good at darts!