London Irish boss Toby Booth admitted it was a case of dejavu after his side lost to the Scarlets for a second time this season.
The Exiles arrived in West Wales looking for a fourth Heineken Cup win in five attempts as they sought to make next week's Twickenham encounter with Leinster a winner-takes-all affair.
Instead they left the Parc-y-Scarlets without even a losing bonus-point to their name after the home side produced a stunning comeback in the final 20 minutes of a pulsating encounter.
And Booth, who now knows his side must beat Leinster by more than seven points and secure a try-scoring bonus in their final game to top the group, claimed there were similarities between this latest setback and the defeat to the same side at the Madjeski Stadium back in October.
"It was dejavu, let's be honest about it," said Booth after the 31-22 reverse.
"We knew it was going to be very tough here. The damage in relation to the competition was done at home because we know that all the Welsh regions are very passionate and are always going to perform well at home.
"Despite injuries, they've done very well and they should be given credit for that.
"I do feel, however, that a lot of what went on today was our own doing. We're pretty disappointed by the unforced error count. We didn't take the opportunities that we crafted for ourselves.
"At 22-10 up, you expect to close the game out. We had glorious opportunities to put the game to bed and we didn't take them."
