Yeovil's hopes of the 21st league scalp were dashed by a fairly professional performance from second division strugglers Cheltenham.
But the Glovers' hopes had probably disappeared before the kick-off with three key men suspended. It meant they had to bring in Chris Giles and a recent Abdou Elkholti for their 1st start of the season.
The latter, an attacking player by nature, looked out of his depth early in a defensive role and must shoulder the blame for the eighth minute goal which gave the Robins just the start they needed. Neil Howarth got in a cross and Julian Alsop touched home from close range.
Cheltenham continued to dominate the first half with Yeovil managing only one real chance on 36 minutes when Howard Forinton was in the clear, but dallied and was robbed before he could shoot.
Yeovil were dealt another blow early in the second half when central defender Colin Pluck was stretchered off with a head injury and in the 64th minute they fell further behind. Hugh McAuley put Martin Devaney away and he shrugged off a challenge to squeeze the ball home off keeper Chris Weale.
Yeovil's best efforts came at the end, on 84 minutes sub Abdoulai Demba had the chance to make a name for himself within a minute of his arrival, but shot wide when he should have scored, and in stoppage time Elkholti produced the best effort with a 25-yard piledriver that Steve Book touched on to a post.
Graham Allner, the Cheltenham boss: "No-one wants to come to Yeovil in the FA Cup, but we gave a professional performance and I'm obviously pleased to go through." Yeovil manager Gary Johnson: "We needed everybody to be on top of their game against a team from a higher division, some were but some weren't."