WESTCOMBE PARK made hard work of beating relegation-threatened Henley in National League 2.

They edged home 9-5 and had James Whittingham’s hat-trick of penalties to thank for sparing their blushes.

Henley had taken a five-point lead into the break thanks to Mark Odejobi’s unconverted try before Whittingham came to the rescue in the second half.

However, Combe were grateful to slack kicking from Henley’s fly-half who missed six penalty efforts, including two inexplicable blunders from inside the 22 late in the second half which would have won the game.

The tense match was won and lost in the midfield but Combe will point to a penalty which apparently sailed between the posts only to called a miss by the officials.