Manager John Taylor, who will be 39 on Friday turned out for the second time in a week to lead his attack as Cambridge broke their losing streak.
The legs gave up on him towards the end, leading to a mistimed tackle, which brought him a rather harsh booking.
By then Cambridge had the game won through the youngest player on the field, 17 year old John Turner.
A through-ball by Terry Flemming saw the youngster race in to rob defender Simon Bryant before slotting the ball home.
Turner was injured in scoring and had to be replaced, but inside ten minutes Cambridge had wrapped up the points.
Rising at the far post from a corner, Justin Walker's header beat keeper Kevin Miller to sneak inside an unguarded post.
It was Rovers' second home defeat and part of the crowd called for manager Ray Graydon, who is in his second season with the club, to go.
They even booed the sponsors home man of the match award to Christian Edwards - nothing personal, only the fact the award was made at all after a ragged performance.
It took Rovers a long time to get into the game and their first threat came midway through the first half when Paul Tait ran onto a ball to the left of goal. As he cut in he was stopped by a superb tackle from Shane Tudor, who had tracked back at the hint of danger.
It brought the home side two corners without Cambridge feeling any real pressure.
A free-kick by Wayne Carlisle did that minutes later. As it curled towards the far post, the Cambridge defenders were happy to hustle it behind for another corner.
The better build-up play was always coming from Cambridge, were Taylor's experience and Tudor's energy was always complimented by Luke Gutteridge's passing.
Taylor got in a point-blank header as he was allowed to go up unchallenged to a ball swung across the goal by Stuart Bimson. Apart from that header, Rovers defence was not in trouble until early in the second half when Miller came off his line to chase a Tudor corner.
As he went down in the box, Rovers managed to hack the ball away but the relief was short lived.
They never did justice to themselves and failed to put in a single shot on target.