FOUR of Northern Ireland's first five World Cup qualifying matches will be Saturday home games, it was revealed yesterday. Their only away trip before April of next year will be to Germany on Saturday, November 9th, while four Saturdays will be spent hosting Group Nine's other contenders at Belfast's Windsor Park.

Bryan Hamilton's side have a good chance to get some points in the bank with home games to start with against the Ukraine and Armenia, the group's weakest country. But they have a tough finish next year with trips to Albania and Portugal.

Hamilton, Irish FA president Jim Boyce and general secretary David Bowen met officials from Germany, Portugal, Ukraine, Albania and Armenia to draw up the fixture list running order in Frankfurt.

A delighted Hamilton said: "No-one gets exactly what they want at these meetings, but we did reasonably well.

"We tried for two home games to start with against lesser nations, if there are any, and we succeeded. So we have opportunities to put some points on the board.

"We also managed to avoid having to play any qualifiers, this year or next, in June which, in the past, has been a notoriously bad month for Northern Ireland teams playing qualifying games.

"And we have delayed Germany's visit to Belfast until such time as we should have more seating available at Windsor Park."