HASNEY Aljofree may have been the one who was wearing the Superman pants last night but it was prankster Billy Paynter who edged himself nearer County Ground hero status.
The physical striker celebrated his return from a three-game suspension with Town's second goal of the night, capping a powerful display of forward play that has been sorely missed in recent weeks.
Paynter celebrated his eighth goal of the season, a clever flicked header, by displaying his skipper's choice of under garments to the crowd - following the Advertiser's mock-up of Aljofree as the superhero on Friday.
But it was Cheltenham who were caught with their pants down last night, so to speak, gifting Town victory with some comical defending after what was a bright start by the visitors.
Cox and Paynter took full advantage, on 20 and 44 minutes respectively, taking their partnership tally to 12 goals in just 13 starts together this season.
Christian Roberts added the third late in the second half, just a minute after coming off the bench, as Town moved to within five points of the play-offs with two games in hand.
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Paynter said: "The suspension was hard to take. The manager has stuck with me and hopefully I have repaid his faith with my performance.
"There is friendly rivalry in the goal scoring stakes. There will be a bit of banter, but as long as someone scores the goals and we get in the play-offs I am happy.
"If Coxy was to finish topscorer it would not bother me though. It is a team game.
"I said to him before the game, it was the first time we have played for a while so lets put on a show. I thought we worked ever so well together and we both got our goals."
Boss Maurice Malpas rang the changes from Saturday's defeat at Huddersfield, with Anthony McNamee, Michael Pook and Paynter replacing Roberts, Moses Ashikodi and Sofiene Zaaboub.
It was almost deja-vu though as a Cheltenham onslaught in the first few minutes threatened to take the game away from Town.
First Steve Brooker was denied by Peter Brezovan in the opening minute and then Andy Gallinagh amazingly saw a close-range effort deflected off the line, off the post and cleared to safety.
But from the moment Alex Russell gifted the ball to Jon-Paul McGovern and Cox converted the resulting cross there was only ever one winner.
Paynter said: "We put in a great team performance and to get three goals was a great result.
"Huddersfield was not the nicest of games but tonight we knew we had to give something back and put in a good performance.
"Nottingham Forest will be a great day on Saturday. The stadium is great, the atmosphere will be electric.
"We have to go in the right frame of mind and look to carry on."
The night's entertainment did end on a slightly sour note, with Barry Corr taking a knock to his shoulder again, but Malpas' new brand of positive football could promise exciting times ahead.
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