Swindon Town 1 Brentford 1 match report: Better late than never for Kevin O'Connor

Fall guy: Swindon’s Gary Roberts tumbles under pressure from Wright-Phillips (PA)

Seven days too late as far as Brentford fans are concerned, but the London side's captain, Kevin O'Connor, last night converted an injury-time penalty in a key promotion encounter.

Last week at Griffin Park O'Connor failed to assert his authority and take a spot-kick against Doncaster Rovers that would have sealed automatic promotion. Instead, a substitute striker, Marcello Trotta, refused to hand over the ball and struck the bar with a miss that consigned Brentford to the play-offs. But yesterday, in spookily similar circumstances in the first leg of the League One play-off semi-finals, O'Connor took control and made no mistake in the 94th minute to earn his side a draw ahead of the return leg on Monday.

"Kevin is excellent," said Uwe Rösler, the Brentford manager. "He had not played for a long time due to injury but stepped up to the plate. He used all his experience and skills to convert the penalty."

Swindon took the lead midway through the second half when Massimo Luongo gathered the ball 20 yards out and bent a shot into the bottom corner. But Luongo then turned from hero to villain when he felled Harry Forrester and, with Trotta watching from the bench, O'Connor calmly slotted the ball into the right-hand corner.

Swindon (4-5-1): Foderingham; Devera, Flint, Ward, Byrne; A Rooney, McCormack, Luongo, Ferry (Collins, 82), Roberts; Williams.

Brentford (4-4-2): Moore; Logan, O'Connor, Dean, Bidwell; Forshaw (Saunders, 82), Adeyami, Hodson (Forrester, 77), Douglas; Wright-Phillips (El Alagui, 68), Donaldson.

Referee Geoff Eltrigham.