Jack joins in praise for coach Beenhakker

"I can’t give enough credit to Leo Beenhakker. He has brought a level of professionalism and a level of belief, actually," Jack, who plays professionally for Dundee in the Scottish Premiership, told the FIFA website.

"He gave us that belief that we could compete at this level, that we could compete with the likes of Mexico and the US and the rest of the group. I think Trinidad have got better as the campaign has gone by."

Beenhakker, a Dutch national who has coached Real Madrid and Ajax, took over from Bertille St Clair after TT went winless in their first three matches of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying final round.

The team had been beaten 2-1 by the United States in their opening match, drubbed 5-1 by Guatemala and then held to a 0-0 draw by Costa Rica.

In his first match in charge, TT beat Panama 2-0 and then earned a 3-2 victory over Guatemala, a 1-0 win over Panama and a shock 2-1 verdict over Mexico to finish fourth in the standings and reach the play off against Bahrain.

"He changed the mind-set of the players and psychologically he made us believe that we can be a better team and all of the players took that on board and were able to produce that on the pitch," Jack explained. "Not every game we did well but he brought that fighting spirit, that tactical awareness and that self-belief that we could do this."

He added: "It was just one of those things, it is the reward for all the hard work and one of those things you work on in training. It just happened to happen in this game. God was with me, to be honest, so we are going to the World Cup!"