A less than eventful first half finished with the visitors in front, Boro taking the lead after 25 minutes. A dangerous ball into the Rovers penalty area caught out the defence and Stevenage's top scorer Anthony Elding waltzed through to fire the ball into the left-hand corner of the net from close range.
The second half was a slight improvement on the first, but Boro should have wrapped the game up five minutes after the interval. Dannie Bulman's cross was not cleared by the Rovers defence, but this time from close range Barry Laker blasted the ball well over the bar.
Forest Green almost snatched an unlikely equaliser just after the hour when an innocuous free-kick into the Boro penalty area was flicked on by Jon Richardson and almost crept into the left-hand corner of the net.
Just one minute from time Rovers were awarded a penalty. The referee, who had a poor game, needed the help of his linesman to give what looked a certain penalty when Adam Garner was brought down by Jason Goodliffe. Up stepped Charlie Griffin and he fired the ball low into the corner of the net.
Stevenage were unlucky not to snatch the winner deep into injury time when Bulman's free-kick struck the right-hand post and the Rovers defence cleared.