Kevin Ellison missed the game through injury, but Chris McCready passed a fitness test to keep his place in the side. Carl Tremarco replaced Ellison on the left of midfield whilst Danny Harrison replaced Ellison on the subs bench.
Rovers had the best of the early pressure, as first Chris Shuker and then Chris Greenacre forced Robins goalkeeper Shane Higgs into low saves.
Minutes later, the former Stoke striker had another attempt at goal, as a Stockdale cross was missed by Higgs in the Cheltenham goal. However, Greenacre wasn't able to fire goalwards before a defender took the ball away from him.
Completely against the run of play, Town took the lead through Kayode Odejayi. The pacey striker ran on to a long ball and after beating a feeble challange from Ian Goodison, Odejayi fired brilliantly and powerfully into the top corner from 15 yards, leaving Gavin Ward with no chance.
Odejayi had a similar chance minutes later. After once again leaving the shocked Ian Goodison in his wake, the rapid Robins front man this time put his effort well wide and high, to rub salt into the wound after his stunning finish for his goal.
It seemed that even when Goodison had the ball, he was intent on making sure he could find Odejayi to give it to the opposing striker. On 24 minutes, the Jamaican refused to touch the ball, thus allowing Odejayi to sneak past him and run clear on goal. However, the striker could only shoot straight at Ward, who made a good save after making himself big and staying on his feet until this shot was made.
However, Rovers were back on the attack minutes later, as a wayward Stockdale cross hit the crossbar and McLaren had a clever free-kick charged down from 25 yards.
However, it was Cheltenham who were soon back in the Rovers half of the field with more chances to increase their one goal advantage.
Robbie Stockdale made one fantastic tackle on the edge of the six yard box, when there was no room for anything to go wrong, and then minutes later, the Scottish International made a fantastic goalline clearence, which saved Rovers from going 2-0 down and was remenicent of a goalline clearence made by Reuben Hazell in the League Cup Semi-Final Second Leg against Bolton six years ago.
Minutes later, Gavin Ward was once again called into action in the Rovers goal, as he made a good one handed save from former Wolves player JJ Melligan.
With Rovers really failing to get out of their own half, they needed Gareth Taylor to hold up the ball when they got the chance to pump it forward. However, far too often Taylor would fail to even touch the ball, perhaps due to poor accuracy on the pass to him and perhaps due to lazyness on Taylor's part, and the ball just kept coming straight back.
On one occassion when Rovers did manage to get the ball and go on the offensive, striker Chris Greenacre was challanged by a number of defenders and muscled off the ball, allowing Higgs to gather.
Rovers were very lucky that it was only 1-0 at half time, as with just seconds remaining, an unmarked Gavin Caines headed narrowly over from inside the six yard box from a Gavin McCann free-kick.
In the second half, Rovers began to pick up the pace, and sung on by 391 travelling fans, Ronnie Moore's side went on the offensive and Cheltenham went on the back foot.
After a good passing move when Greenacre found Taylor and then Taylor found winger Chris Shuker, the former Barnsley player ran into the penalty area but shot wide and high of the the goal when he should have atleast got his effort on target.
McLaren then put a volley from 20 yards overs before a fantastic 25 yard effort from Greenacre was tipped over, just infront of the Rovers fans.
John Mullin then forced Higgs into another good save down to his left before Greenacre managed to find some space to shoot five minutes later, however the tallisman could only send a weak effort straight at Higgs.
Mullin saw a cross tipped over by Higgs and shortly afterwards the ex-Rotherham midfielder was replaced by player/coach Jason McAteer.
Rovers best chance fell to Carl Tremarco on 75-minutes. With the 'keeper down and only one or two defenders in his way, but the defender flashed at his effort and saw it blocked by John Finnigan at the far post.
The introduction of Calvin Zola on 81 minutes, replacing Robbie Stockdale, livened Rovers up, as Ronnie Moore changed his side to a 3-4-3 formation.
However, the final ball was lacking and Rovers only managed one more chance through-out the last ten minutes, when a Zola header clearly hit the arm of a defender but Rovers' protests were ignored by referee Mr. Stroud.
It was not the only mistake that the referee, or his assistants, made in the match. Numerous shouts for handball and free-kicks were ignored, whilst on one occassion when the ball clearly didn't cross the goalline, the linesman gave a goalkick.
Ronnie Moore's team battled hard but the final ball just wasn't there and the finishing was dissapointing. The wingers (Tremarco and Shuker) were poor whilst the central midfield were hrdly noticeable through-out the match. The only reason you could tell Gareth Taylor was on the field was because every time the ball went near him, he commited a foul or was offside.
Jones' Man Of The Match: Robbie Stockdale and Gavin Ward both had fantastic games for Rovers, with niether putting a foot wrong. Stockdale made some key clearences and challanges whilst Ward made some stunning saves.
However, last nights Tranmere Man of the Match, in my opinion, was Rovers striker Chris Greenacre, who put in 110% all night, often doing Gareth Taylors job, and deserved a goal for his efforts.