David Bird celebrated the arrival of his second daughter with a stunning goal to sink Tranmere Rovers at Whaddon Road last night.

Bird's wife Nikki gave birth on Monday and he capped a memorable week with his first strike of the season, securing Cheltenham Town's second win in four days after a run of three months without a win.

The Robins enjoyed a dream start a corner from Ian Westlake was cleared as far as Bird, 20 yards from goal in the third minute.

The stand-in skipper flicked the ball up with his right foot before crashing in a superb volley into the top left corner with his weaker left foot.

Westlake went down in the penalty area down under a heavy challenge from Ryan Shotton, but appeals for a penalty were waved away as the Robins' kept pressing.

A strong run down the right from Josh Low ended with a measured pass to Elvis Hammond, who pulled the ball back for Westlake, but his shot was deflected wide off Ben Chorley in the 19th minute.

Tranmere were rattled, but a misjudgement from Cheltenham goalkeeper Scott Brown handed them their first sight of goal 29 minutes in.

He went to ground to dive on an over-hit pass from Bas Savage, but slid out of his penalty area near the dead ball line. Andy Taylor curled in the resulting free-kick but Drissa Diallo headed to safety.

Tranmere went within a whisker of levelling five minutes before the breal through an extraordinary attempt from Shotton.

Steven Jennings' free-kick was half cleared and Shotton threw himself at an overhead kick that looped over the helpless Brown, but clipped the outside of the post.

Savage, who played one game on trial for Cheltenham Reserves in 2005, held off the challenge of Michael Townsend seconds before the break, but his left footed effort was straight at Brown.

Cheltenham passed the ball nicely at times and worked hard to deny their visitors any time on the ball.

Martin Allen's side were good value for their half-time lead and the majority of the lowest home league crowd of the campaign cheered their side off at the break.

Tranmere made a brighter start to the second half and Brown flapped at a Charlie Barnett corner in the 48th minute, but Cheltenham eventually cleared.

A curling shot from Taylor was touched over by Brown after a corner in the 57th minute.

Nicholas Bignall, who scored his first Cheltenham goal in the 2-0 win over Hartlepool last Saturday, looked lively throughout the second half with his pace and power.

At the other end, Craig Curran's header from Gareth Edds' cross was deflected wide with 10 minutes remaining and Taylor shot high over the bar.

Anthony Kay headed Shotton's cross over, but Cheltenham were relatively comfortable and nine more performances like this could see them pull off the most remarkable escape, but they remain odds on for the drop.

Cheltenham Town: S Brown; A Lindegaard, D Diallo, M Townsend, L Ridley; J Low, D Bird, A Gallinagh, I Westlake; E Hammond (D Spencer 58), N Bignall. Subs not used: W Puddy, J Lee, M Watkins, J Durrant.

Tranmere Rovers: D Coyne; R Shotton, B Chorley, I Goodison, A Taylor; E Sonko, A Kay, C Barnett (C Curran 68), S Jennings (G Edds 80); B Savage, I Moore. Subs not used: L Waterfall, A Cresswell, J Achterberg.