A first half Luke Varney double and Tyrone Barnett's second half header guided Cheltenham Town to a comfortable 3-1 win over Northampton Town in Sky Bet League Two.
Dean Bowditch scored pulled one back for the away side in the 89th minute, netting a free kick.
The win see’s the Robins stay 17th in the table, just four points behind the Cobblers who drop to 13th - as their fine run of form came to an end.
Both teams started brightly, Cheltenham’s Chris Hussey registering the first shot of the game with a volley that went over the bar, and Jay Williams followed it up for the away side heading a corner straight towards Scott Flinders.
Tyrone Barnett then fired his first shot towards the Northampton goal, after some good hold up play from Luke Varney, Barnett struck his effort well, but it was well saved by David Cornell.
Some good pressure from Kevin Dawson down the right-hand side led to the opening goal of the game, he latched onto a poor touch from a Northampton midfielder, ran down the wing, and crossed to find Luke Varney, the forward made no mistake netting his 12th of the season.
Cheltenham continued to press the Northampton back line, good crosses coming from Ryan Broom on the right.
Cheltenham’s pressure paid off as Tyrone Barnett earned a penalty, Ryan Hughes brought down the forward in the box, the defender was too slow with his challenge and received a yellow card for the late foul.
Varney stepped up and struck the penalty straight down the middle fooling Cornell in goal, doubling the Robins lead.
Cheltenham continued to come forward, another Ryan Broom cross found Barnett at the back post, but his leap and header went wide of the target.
Barnett then turned provider early I the second half. He laid the ball back to Broom who took one touch and struck goalward with his left foot, but the shot went wide of Cornell’s post.
Cheltenham were enjoying their best spells on either wing as the second half went on, Chris Clements back post cross was brought down by Varney, he got the shot away, but it went straight to Cornell in goal.
Tyrone Barnett continued to work hard in the Cheltenham front line, he rolled the ball through to Dawson, who’s shot was parried out for a corner by the Northampton number one.
Chris Clements was next in line to test Cornell, his free-kick was flying in the top corner if the Cobblers goalkeeper didn’t match it with a good stop.
From the resulting corner Tyrone Barnett got a well-deserved goal, he leapt highest to win the header and Cornell couldn’t keep this one out.
The away side offered very little in the first 30 minutes of the second half, so much so that home fans jeered when Scott Flinders got a touch of the ball in the 73rd minute.
In the games dying moments the away fans had something to cheer, as Dean Bowditch stepped up and smashed home a free kick from 25 yards.
ROBINS: Flinders; Tozer, Raglan, Boyle; Dawson, Tillson, Clements (Forster, 89), Hussey, Broom (Thomas, 65); Varney (Bingham, 87), Barnett. Subs not used: Lovett, Thomas, Maddox, Lloyd, Pring
NORTHAMPTON: Cornell; Buchanan, Hughes (Powell, 74), Taylor, Goode; Hoskins, Foley, A Williams, Powell (Bowditch, 46), O’Toole; J Williams (Sordell, 46) Subs not used: Coddington, Facey, Bridge, Newell.
ATTENDANCE: 3,513 (638 away fans)
REFEREE: Charles Breakspear