Cheltenham are without a win in nine games but they showed enough fighting spirit in this match to suggest they have the stomach for a battle.
Yeovil, meanwhile, are stuttering for a repeat of last season's play-off heroics and have now won only once in eight league matches.
Cheltenham started positively enough with striker Damian Spencer seeing an early shot blocked by Nathan Jones and Caines heading wide from a corner taken by former Town player Andy Lindegaard.
But the visitors stood strong and made life difficult for a Cheltenham team low on confidence and able to attack only in sporadic bursts.
Yeovil were handed a goal with 31 minutes played when Richie Jones got free on the right-hand side of the box and his cross was only half cleared by Caines.
Lloyd Owusu was on the spot to lift the loose ball over the diving body of goalkeeper Shane Higgs to claim his seventh goal of the season.
Spencer and Owusu both went close with chances at the start of the second half, but the longer the game went on, the more it became a war of attrition between Cheltenham's increasingly desperate attacks and Yeovil's determined defending.
In the end it took a fine left-footed delivery from veteran former Aston Villa defender Alan Wright to open up the Yeovil defence.
His ball into the box with only a minute left was met by Caines, who atoned for his earlier mistake by flick heading the ball beyond stranded goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall to level the scores.