Witney made it seven straight wins in South West 1 East by coming from 15-0 down to defeat second-placed Towcesterians 18-15 at Hailey Road on Saturday.

The success saw the hosts climb to fifth in the table.

With time running out and the sides locked at 15-15, it looked as though the home side’s winning streak would be coming to an end.

But Phil Thomas’s penalty sealed victory at the death.

The hosts started confidently, but fell behind in the sixth minute when flanker Liam Williamson sliced through for a try.

James Falvey extended the visitors’ lead with a penalty, and it got worse for Witney when flanker Tom George touched down, with Falvey adding the extras.

Towcesterians suffered a setback when centre Chrissie George was stretchered off with a badly cut leg following a ten-minute delay.

Witney got on the scoreboard a minute into the second half through a penalty from full back Thomas and Towcesterians then had Devlin Jones sin-binned for obstruction.

The hosts took full advantage of the extra man with right wing Carl Strutt charging over the line.

The ball was spun out following a ruck which formed after Ben Fisk was held up just short of the line, to make it 15-8.

And it got even better for Witney when Thomas jinked over, before adding the conversion to bring the home side level.

Four minutes from time, Phil Thomas completed the turnaround by cooly landing a difficult penalty from 38 metres out to the right of the posts.

On Saturday, Witney look to make it eight wins in a row at Oxfordshire rivals Grove.