Northern Ireland kept their World Cup hopes alive with a 4-0 win over European minnows Sam Marino in Belfast last night.

Having suffered defeats at the hands of Slovakia and Slovenia, and only managing a draw against the Czech Republic, this was a must win match for the small country of only 1.7 million inhabitants.

And on the night they duly delivered with goals from David Healy (two), Grant McCann and Kyle Lafferty securing a 4-0 victory.

That leaves Northern Ireland in fourth place in Group 3, five points behind leaders Slovakia and three points behind Poland and Slovenia respectfully.

The Czech Republic also have four points with a game in hand and San Marino are rooted to the foot of the table with no points and one game in hand.

There is no doubt things are looking better for Northern Ireland today than they did after Saturday's defeat in Slovenia, which left the team with only one point from their first three matches.

But with only the top team from each group assured of automatic qualification to South Africa 2010, the men in green still face an upward battle.

Northern Ireland have still to face Poland home and away as well as a trip to the Czech Republic for their final match on 14th October 2009.

To give themselves a fighting chance of qualification the Belfast boys need to collect full points from their next three fixtures; away to San Marino, home to Poland and home to Slovenia.

The San Marino and Slovenia matches should take care of themselves, but the trip to Poland could prove tricky.

Northern Ireland have a dismal away record and a trip to the towering, battle-hardened Poles is filled with pitfalls now that David Healy is one of the most tightly marked strikers in Europe following his impressive 13 goal haul in last year's European Championship qualifiers - a new record.

They have a home friendly against Hungry between now and when the World Cup qualifiers resume and manager Nigel Worthington must use that friendly to give Martin Paterson a full 90 minutes of international football alongside David Healy.

Kyle Lafferty is not an out and out striker.

He is good at knocking balls down and holding up play, but with Healy finding it increasingly difficult to find space these days Northern Ireland need to change their tactics.

Instead of Lafferty trying to win balls to release Healy, Paterson can use his pace and clinical finishing to punish defences who are too focused on 'King David'.

Paterson has been in superb form for Burnley this season, scoring seven goals in his first thirteen appearances for the club following his summer transfer from Scunthorpe Untied.

And if Northern Ireland can use the shaven headed front man as a surprise weapon against the Poles and then away to Slovenia they might just set themselves up for a dramatic three match finale that could seem them qualifying for their first major tournament in 24 years.

Labels: Belfast, David Healy, Kyle Lafferty, Northern Ireland, San Marino, World Cup