Sep 2 2009 Billy Brown; Craig Swan

LOSING big Kevin Kyle is a massive blow to Kilmarnock - and a huge setback for George Burley.

Having the big man go in for an operation last week was a real disappointment for us and it's a shame because he was flying at Killie and his form had landed him his place in the squad for the Macedonia and Holland matches.

He had some injury problems in the summer as well and there is nothing you can do about it.

It's disappointing he had to go out and as well as being a sledgehammer for us,I can't help but think it is a blow to George.

With the type of game Saturday is going to be, I felt big Kevin, right, might have landed a spot on the bench.

If we needed a goal in the latter part of the game and were hoping to get balls into the box, Kevin would have been the ideal guy to bring on to hassle defenders.

He'd be someone the Macedonians would not know a great deal about so it's a shame for George as our Scotland manager needs all the luck he can get at the moment.

Myself and Jim usually go to the Scotland games but we are going to train on Saturday morning and it would be a struggle to make it to Hampden.

If big Kevin had been there we might have gone late but as he's out we'll just concentrate on our players before watching it on TV.

It's been a hard week for us after losing Kevin, losing Alan Combe to an operation as well and losing to St Mirren I'm still down in the dumps after last Saturday because we should have won.

That is the way it goes but I thought the Daily Record headline on Monday - All Style, No Kyle - was spot on because we played a lot of good stuff and had chances to finish them off.

There has been a fair bit of griping over the issue of diving in the past week. I can't disagree the Aiden McGeady case was highlighted because everyone made a big deal of the Eduardo situation.

Funnily enough,I spoke out on diving a couple of years ago in the Daily Record and ended up being fined by the SFA over it.

But I hate it. It's not part of our game, it's not part of our footballing culture and let's get it stamped out.To me it's simple, just send a player off if he dives.

As told to Craig Swan