Locke determined to bounce back

The 31-year-old has not started a game this season after persistent knee problems but he has come off the bench in the last six games. Locke's cross helped create Gordon Greer's consolation goal and he is determined to play on to make up for the disappointment. He said: "I'm feeling quite good about myself, I felt good when I went on. So I'll go again next season. When you get to finals it just makes you all the more determined to try to get back because they are great occasions. "For a while there it didn't look good but the last few months things have been looking a lot better for me. "I got a wee taste for it today and that makes me more determined to get us back next year." The former Hearts skipper was booed onto the park by the fans from the other half of Edinburgh but he claims losing to Hibs did not make it any worse. "You saw I got a nice reception," he said. "But whether it's Hibs or anybody it would hurt just as bad. It's a horrible feeling when you taste defeat in a final. "It was an horrific result. But the boys have got to try to remain positive, we've had a good season. And we can't let one game ruin it." Locke was in the Hearts side that lost 5-1 to Rangers in the Scottish Cup final before beating the Gers at the same stage two years later. And he has urged his Killie team-mates to look ahead to the rest of the Bank of Scotland Premier League season. He said: "There are a lot of young boys in the team and I have just been saying to them that I went through a similar thing myself in 96. It's how you react to this. "We want to push on and maybe catch Hearts. We want to finish the season on a high. "Our aim at the start of the season was to finish in the top six, which we have done, and we have got to look beyond that now." Locke did not believe the scoreline was an accurate reflection of the game. Rob Jones headed the only goal of the first half and both Steven Fletcher and Abdessalam Benjelloun completed doubles in the closing stages after Greer's goal. Locke said: "We had a couple of chances early on in the game, if we had taken them it would maybe have been different. "But once Benjelloun scored the second they got a lot of confidence from that and passed the ball well. They were all wanting the ball and we found it difficult. "We got it back to 3-1 and for a wee spell looked as if we could get another, but it wasn't to be."