It''s been a depressing summer for the people of Kilmarnock and their football club.

The imminent closure of the Johnnie Walker plant with the loss of almost 1000 jobs is a devastating blow to the town.

At Rugby Park we have also had to make cuts on a much smaller scale- an unhealthy situation that doesn''t help anybody.

Chief scout John Harvey, someone I've worked with for 21 years, has gone along with Gary Locke who is one of the most promising coaches in the country.

Hopefully, we might be able to find a suitable resolution to the Locke situation because our game needs people like him to be involved.

It''s a major blow to Kilmarnock that he's no longer working with us as I genuinely believe he has the potential to go all the way to the top.

After all the recent turmoil it was so pleasing to get the new campaign off to such a terrific start last weekend.

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Yes, opponents Hamilton were under strength, a team unrecognisable from the last campaign, but we can only take care of our own business and did so.

To come away with such a comprehensive 3-0 victory in front of our own supporters was a timely boost.

However, if there's one thing I've learned during my three decades in football it's not to take heed of pre-season results and never get carried away with your first game.

Last year we beat Hibs, Motherwell and Dundee United and then tailed off, so we have to keep our feet on the ground.

We always seem to start the season well and finish it well but that six-month spell in the middle has tended to be a problem.

I think perhaps we are a fair weather team and the sooner we switch to playing summer football the better.

I genuinely don't know why it happens but we are going about trying to cure it at the moment.We have tried a new pre-season training regime and are hoping a slower build-up will be the answer and also act as an injury prevention measure.

I was reading recently how Sir Alex Ferguson changed the close-season programme at Manchester United because he felt his side had languished behind Chelsea at the start of the last two seasons.

You must keep learning from the past, be receptive to new methods and always push to improve.

That's what we have tried to do and hopefully we will reap the benefits of that during the rest of the season.

One of Kilmarnock's biggest problems has been a lack of goals, although Kevin Kyle has helped solve that issue.

He was on target twice in the 3-0 win over Hamilton and almost immediately after the game the speculation started about him winning a Scotland recall.

Also, the more he scores the more attention he attracts from other clubs, although that is simply a fact of life for Kilmarnock.

If you have a proven goalscorer, other clubs want him.

In recent years we have lost Steven Naismith, Kris Boyd and Colin Nish, while Hibs have seen Steven Fletcher and Derek Riordan move on to pastures new.

There's nothing you can do about that.

We just hope we can keep big Kevin here because he has been a revelation in Scotland.

Down south most of the centre-halves were the same size if not bigger than him but up here he can use his strength and stature a lot more.

On Saturday he was up against Marvin Andrews, who is arguably one of the strongest defenders in the SPL, and just bulldozed him.

It was a terrific display of strength and if he can keep that up for in the months ahead everyone at Killie will be delighted.

As told to Colin Duncan