That tightened their grip on third place in the race for Europe and Kenneth believes it should also have seen his mate take a step towards South Africa.

“It’s not for me to tell Ghana’s coach who he should pick, and I know they have decent players, but the way Prince is playing must make him hard to ignore,” said the Scotland squad member.

“He’s been like this all season. His work in the middle of the park has been immense and, if he’s going to add goals like Saturday’s, then he’s got everything you want.

“To be fair, when he shoots, you usually are looking at row Z, but the way he finished for his goal was quality.”

Buaben could also be on his travels with United next term and, after beating Motherwell, Kenneth admits a European place via a third-place finish in the league is now there for the taking.

“We will keep taking it one game at a time, but you do have to say it’s ours to lose now. If we come away from Hibs on Wednesday night with a result, then we’ll be in a very strong position.”

That game is all boss Peter Houston is focusing on and he knows he’ll have to make changes for the capital trip.

With Paul Dixon suspended after his red card for a tackle on Jim O’Brien, and Mihael Kovacevic still out with a hamstring problem, Keith Watson will continue on the right of the defence and Sean Dillon moves back to the left.

“We are lucky Sean is so versatile. Morgaro Gomis is back training, so he’ll return to midfield where Sean was on Saturday and we’ll cope,” said Houstie.

“Jon Daly had a knock and that’s why he was on the bench for Motherwell, but he’ll be fit enough to start at Easter Road.”

And, while Kovacevic will be sidelined for a few days more, he should be available for the league clash with St Johnstone a week tonight.

He saw enough, though, to know his men still have what it takes to go up to the SPL and, starting at Dunfermline tomorrow, believes they can show that.

“We were disappointed to lose a goal late on, but I saw an improvement from last Tuesday’s game to Saturday and I could not have asked for any more in terms of effort,” he said.

“I felt we deserved to win and, if we keep working like that, the wins can come. Of course, they need to start tomorrow, but the big thing for us is that things are still in our own hands.

“If we win our games, we go up, so everything is still there for us.”

The manager also took time today to explain the change of captaincy from Eric Paton to Brian Kerr — Rab Douglas is club captain, but, under Jocky Scott, an outfield player wore the armband in games.

“When I came in last week, I checked the situation with Eric and he said he felt the captaincy was maybe having an effect on his performances.

“It was big of him to say so, because the easy thing for him to do would have been to remain quiet and just carry on.

“And he might have been right, because, in the past two games when Brian Kerr’s been captain, Eric has been excellent.”

Kerr is set to continue in the role to the end of the season and, over the summer, a decision on who should have the job permanently will be made.

“Right now, it’s not a big issue for me. Our focus is on promotion and nothing else. In the situation we are in, you are looking for 11 captains to be on the park,”

Richie Hart and Andrew Shinnie took knocks on Saturday, but both are expected to be on duty at Dunfermline.