The victory over Luton proved a brief respite for Bristol City in this coldest of winters for the Robins promotion hopes.
A battering against Brentford felt like a display of all the team's weaknesses and fallibilities exposed in one brutal 90 minutes in a performance ridden with ill-discipline.
But despite it all, City are still only two points away from the top six and with the now open us are in a position to strengthen. But is that the only answer to their problems?
Our Robins reporter takes a closer look at the talking points to have emerged from a heavy New Year's Day hangover ...
Johnson's anger management
Lee Johnson's anger could land him in hot water soon. The head coach has already sat in the stands at Barnsley following what he said to the fourth official against Luton Town following what he claims was a discussion over bird spotting.
Since then we've also had a yellow card handed out against Blackburn Rovers following a disagreement with the opposition bench, and now a red card.
Yesterday's dismissal may well be over-turned but is the spate of poor discipline a reflection of his team's lack of form? And further is it not an anachronistic habit at odds with the rest of the club's ethos?
Bin the attitude. That's the message from the players but it may need to apply to the top of the tree.
Williams' strange decision
Ashley Williams has been a fine signing this season. But the Bristol City defence is a pale reflection of last season's and the Robins have conceded more goals than 16 other teams in the division.
Williams' but so out of character. It may well be that the Wales international was overly fired up following that clash with Ollie Watkins just two minutes prior to that game-changing incident.
Watkins too had plenty to say as Williams was dismissed 13 minutes into wednesday's game. And indeed the slide tackle on Watkins was so mis-timed that it seemed almost that the 35-year-old could have pulled out.
Eliasson change not necessary
We see the substitution of Niclas Eliasson in two ways. Firstly, there was the need to manage the game and . With a man less, maybe it was better to save Eliasson for the new challenges ahead.
However, Lee Johnson was roundly booed and we can understand why. Why take off your main creative force as you look to get back in the game? It was unnecessary too.
The head coach explained afterwards that he would not have gone for a 4-3-2 formation as the move was unnessarily risky against the precise Bees.But Weimann could have dropped to left wing and Marley Watkins could have been hauled off instead.
Leaky Robins
Those four goals meant that it's just one clean sheet in the past nine league games. Crucially it also meant huge damage was inflicted to City's goal difference, reducing it to -1, in what is a very close league.
City have the equal seventh best attack in the league - on goals scored now - but the joint seventh worst defence - on goals conceded. We're not sure that the loan capture of Eddie Nketiah will change that...
City must be tougher to play against or they will continue to ship goals and lose games.
Fantastic Fam
Oddly the one-man disadvantage brought out the best of Famara Diedhiou who had one of his best games up front for the home side of late.
The Senegal international player was superb at (winning the most attacking aerial duels in the game by far) and bringing others into play (only Josh Brownhill created more chances in the game for City than their No9), with the crowd responding to one such move and crossfield pass to Jack Hunt.
Alas, Hunt was the other side of the coin - but at least faced up to it after the game, following a great display against Luton Town.
Marley Watkins did play well too: winning the most second balls in the match and being fouled more than any Robins player, bar Korey Smith.
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