No-one is saying why Slade was sacked after two-and-a-half years in charge, but one thing is sure - he would have winced at both first-half goals.
It could have been worse but Rovers were denied a penalty when Darryl Duffy was blatantly pulled back by Nathan Smith as he jumped for the ball.
Even the Yeovil defenders turned away expecting the worst, but referee Peter Walton received no signal from his assistant.
After repelling a sequence of ambitious attacks mainly sparked by Paul Warne, Rovers went ahead on 19 minutes when David Pipe hooked in a left-wing cross from Duffy which was touched on by midfielder Chris Lines.
The penalty that got away came minutes later, but the errant linesman made it up to Rovers on the half-hour mark signalling for a free-kick even though Jo Kuffour appeared to have tripped over himself.
Tighter marking might have prevented the first goal, a better defensive discipline would certainly have cut off the second.
Rovers captain Stuart Campbell was able to slide a low free-kick around defenders for Duffy to swoop and steer home his fourth goal in five games since getting back into the side.
Yeovil, who arrived on the back of four successive wins, had not lost to Rovers in seven meetings since they came into the league and worked with some enterprise to hold on to that record.
Steve Phillips had to make a full-stretch dive to keep out a shot from Warne close to half-time and was then a shade fortunate that a decent header from the striker came within grasping range.
Rovers held back their top scorer Rickie Lambert because of a thigh injury but he came on to wrap up the points when he slammed home a 35-yard free-kick for his 21st goal of the season.