Jamie Cureton played the 'ghost of Christmas past' to haunt his former club.
Veteran striker Cureton, 38, scored over forty goals in three spells with Exeter and was released by them in the summer, but he showed them he still has what it takes when he struck in the twelfth minute.
Scott Brown's long punt forward was flicked on by striker Byron Harrison and Cureton darted into the left side of the box to roll home his fifth of the campaign.
Cheltenham manager Mark Yates was especially pleased with the Scrooge mentality shown by his players. He said:
"Scotty's the best keeper in our league and credit to the players - they put their bodies on the line to make it eleven games unbeaten."
Brown was excellent as Exeter cranked up the pressure and he kept out two fierce drives from striker Tom Nichols in the second period while winger Alan Gow hit the outside of the post with a twenty yard free kick.
And in the 93rd minute Brown made sure of the win when he blocked a goal bound shot from midfielder Liam Sercombe.
Cureton came close to scoring in the third minute, but his snap shot on the turn flew just wide of Artur Krysiak's goal.
Krysiak shut out the Robins twice before Cureton's winner when he saved David Noble's shot at the foot of his post and then beat away a long range effort from Matt Richards.
Exeter boss Paul Tisdale has seen his team win one league game in the last ten and slide down the table, but he said:
"We actually hit the target on a lot of occasions and we feel hard done by. We have to make sure it doesn't knock our confidence as there are a lot of good young players in that team."
My piece from the morning paper
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