SAME competition, same stage, same location, same outcome.

Town’s exit from the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy last night had a strange sense of deja vu about it as penalties saw them dumped out of the quarter-finals once more.

Last season it was Norwich and a tie which Swindon had done more than enough to win before it was settled from the spot.

This time around Brentford were the visitors to the County Ground and, if anything, it was even more clear that there should have only been one outcome, with the hosts dominating throughout.

Charlie Austin’s opportunistic effort gave Town an early lead before Robbie Simpson pegged them back with a header, but substitute David Ball struck a post and Austin spurned two chances which he would have buried without a second thought any other day.

A year ago the Canaries triumphed in a penalty shootout in front of the Town End, and almost 12 months on to the day, the Bees provided an almighty sting to Swindon’s hopes of progression as they netted four of their five spotkicks, with Ball and Michael Timlin failing to hit the target for the hosts.

And manager Danny Wilson was left understandably frustrated that the contest had not been “put to bed” sooner, with his side’s inconsistency coming back to haunt them.

“It is very similar to most games this season,” he said.

“We’ve been in command of games and not come out with the outcome we would have liked.

“If we don’t take the opportunities that are presented then we have a problem, and we can’t be as wasteful as we have been.

“It’s been like that a few times this season – we haven’t put teams and games to bed when we should have, and tonight was an example of that.

“We gave away a poor goal but rallied, came back and did enough to win the game.

“However, we had great situations in the second half and were wasteful with them. Even our balls into the box didn’t have as much quality on them.”

After mauling Plymouth in the FA Cup on Saturday with arguably their best performance of the campaign, there was a sense of anticipation among the 3,000-plus Town fans in the Arkell’s Stand and Town End last night.

And their picked up where they had left off in Devon as Austin pounced in the 13th minute. It wasn’t the prettiest goal you will ever see, but when Brentford failed to clear a corner and Lecsinel Jean-Francois lofted the ball back in, Austin was on hand to sneak in front of Bees keeper Richard Lee and slide home into an empty net.

The home side had a big penalty shout turned down minutes later when Vincent Pericard raced on to Michael Rose’s long ball over the top, only to crumple under the challenge of defender Leon Legge having just stepped inside the area.

But referee Jonathan Moss, who was well-placed, was having none of the appeals much to the disgust of Town’s players.

At the other end, a rare Bees attacked on 23 minutes forced Phil Smith into a fantastic one-handed save, diving full-length to turn Simpson’s header behind for a corner.

But the visiting front man was not to be denied again, and was afforded enough space at the far post to rise unchallenged and pick his spot with a powerful header from Craig Woodman’s left-flank delivery.

It was much of the same after the break, with plenty of possession and huff and puff from Swindon, and when they created a chance it was invariably a good one.

And so it proved nine minutes after the restart when Ball seized on a mistake by Legge in the middle of the park and raced clear past defender Pim Balkestein.

His angled shot beat Lee but rebounded off the post to Austin, inside the six-yard box, who could only smash the loose ball against a covering defender on the line when he should have been celebrating reaching double figures for the campaign.

As Town pressed for a winner David Prutton scooped a shot over, while substitute Alan O’Brien’s header was well kept out by Lee, and Matt Ritchie shot wide of the upright from close range when well-placed.

With two minutes remaining and penalties looming it suddenly looked as though they wouldn’t be required as Paul Caddis’ cross found Austin at the far post.

It was another chance where you would have back the striker to be wheeling away in celebration, but he stuck the header into the Town End rather than the back of the net.

And so to spot kicks. With Kevin O’Connor, Charlie MacDonald and Michael Spillane all netting for Brentford, Swindon made life hard on themselves as Ball slammed his effort against the bar and Timlin blazed well over.

Austin and Rose had already scored for the hosts, and Town keeper Smith saved from Woodman, but it was left to Simpson to tuck the ball home and seal the Bees’ progression into the southern area semi-finals.