GEOFF Cooke admitted he was "relieved" to come away from Henley with a narrow 16-13 victory yesterday as Worcester scraped home with a desperate performance.

The league leaders could easily have lost the game if Henley full-back Nick Buoy had have had his kicking boots on but at the final whistle, a lack-lustre display was still enough to keep them eight points clear at the top of National One.

Not only did Buoy miss four second-half penalties, the Dry Leas side thought they should have been awarded a try at the death as Tom Holloway sprinted away to seemingly touch down in the corner only for referee David Grashoff to deny them their glory.

Former England coach Cooke, Worcester's chief executive, knew his side had got out of jail.

He said: "I am just relieved to get away with a win -- that's the main thing. Henley played well and defended well. We couldn't break their defence down and we turned over a lot of ball today."

The win -- and four points -- keeps Worcester top but, with second-placed Leeds Tykes winning 40-14 at Otley and collecting a bonus point in the process, the gap has now been narrowed to eight points

The Yorkshire side also have two games in hand.

Cooke was critical of his side's tactics during the game which saw them continuously kick for touch instead of taking penalties on offer, making it a closer finish than it should have been.

"I was pretty depressed at the end. I felt we should have kicked our goals rather than go for touch all the time but that is just part of the pressure Leeds are putting us under to make us go for these bonus points.

"Everybody is thinking bonus points before we've won the games. It's an old adage but you've got to make your hard yards -- you've got to win your games first.

"The first half we were playing almost seven-a-side rugby for the first 20 minutes and we've got to look at that."