Henley Hawks could take plenty of heart from a 15-5 defeat to National 2 leaders Barking at Dry Leas.

The result left Hawks bottom as they have been deducted two points for fielding an unregistered player in David Birtwhistle, but this was unbeaten Barking’s narrowest margin of victory all season.

Barking had prop Joe Horn-Smith and lock Tim Collier, both former Henley players, sin-binned in the first ten minutes, but the hosts could not take advantage.

Instead the visitors scored from their first attack on 25 minutes when full back Chris Jones raced away.

A try from flanker James Kellard, converted by fly half Craig Ratford, who added a penalty, made it 15-0 at the break.

Henley showed their ability early in the second half when lock Matt Payne made an break and fed prop Alex Penny, who powered in from 25 metres.

Hawks had to defend for long periods and lost wing Chris-toph Bart and scrum half Jack Shaylor to injury.

This added to flanker Adam Holloway having to withdraw before kick-off, meant regular hooker Andy Dalgleish started in the vacated No 6 spot.