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Former Trinidad and Tobago international captain Russell Latapy and national goalkeeper Kelvin Jack earned their first plaudits of the season from the Scottish media on Monday after fine weekend performances.


Latapy scored the opening goal for Falkirk in a 2-0 Scottish Premier League (SPL) win away to Livingston, while Jack made a string of crucial saves in Dundee's 3-2 Division One triumph at home to St Mirren.

Both men were credited with Man-of-the-Match performances for their employers while The Scottish Sun newspaper selected them on the weekend "All Star" teams of their respective decisions.

Latapy, a player/ coach at Falkirk, declined the chance to return to international duty in May to focus on his own future as a coach. But it is still as a player that he is most useful to Falkirk.

The Sun suggested that he was the best playmaker in the SPL on Saturday, as they marked him with eight out of ten.

Jack got a similar score for Dundee in his second outing of the season. The former CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh goalkeeper kept a clean sheet on the opening day but had a torrid time against a plucky St Mirren team.

"The pace of the game (in the First Division) is frightening," he told the Daily Express. "From what I saw on Saturday, it is better than many people think you have to be switched on all the time because it is constant end to end stuff."

Jack played only five games last season as he suffered a succession of injuries while Dundee slumped to demotion from the SPL. But he is anxious for a more positive time in his second season in the British professional game.

"Last year was a nightmare for me," said Jack. "It was the first time in my career that I had so many injuries but I expect Dundee to get promoted back to the SPL this season and I have set myself a target of playing 40 games at the very least."

His former Dundee teammate, Brent Sancho, is set to move south of the Scottish border subject to a work permit approval after agreeing terms with English League One club, Gillingham.

The British Home Office has been unkind to Trinidad and Tobago players of late.

Collin Samuel was denied a work permit to join England League Two outfit, Scunthorpe, from Dundee United in January, while his United and international teammate, Jason Scotland, was turned down last month.

Agent Mike Berry, who is representing Sancho, suggested that T&T players have been stung by the Home Office's decision to consider the Digicel Caribbean Cup tournament as equally important to the World Cup qualifiers.

Former national coach Bertille St Clair selected a completely local squad for the Caribbean tournament, which was ten games-just one shy of the 11 World Cup qualifiers over the past two years. It means that none of T&T's overseas pros have played the required 75 per cent of their country's international matches in the past two years.

"The pros who played in the World Cup qualifiers will struggle to get work permits now because they didn't play in the Digicel Cup," said Berry. "And the locals who played in the Digicel Cup will also struggle because they didn't play in the World Cup qualifiers."

However, Sancho should still qualify for a work permit since he was injured for nine of the ten Cup games and was unavailable for selection in any case. He is expected to get a decision before the end of the week.