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At a weekend during which several games were canceled due to the snow, things certainly warmed up Saturday in the English Football League.
The city of Norwich won the championship battle by defeating Leeds United at Elland Road for the second-place finish.
Elsewhere, however, there have been contrasting returns and a penalty record that continues to deteriorate among the things you may have missed in the EFL.
A return to forget
For MK Dons director Paul Tisdale, it was a day when he would mark his first visit to St James Park with the defeat of former club Exeter City.
The 46-year-old has ended his 12-year tenure as the city's boss this summer to join MK Stadium and, on his return to Devon, the Grecians have defeated the fourth league alongside Tisdale in their last five games.
Exeter, whose supporters voted to cancel Tisdale's contract in November 2016, advanced on equal points with his opponents, while maintaining a seventh place on the goal difference after the win.
"I'm not quite sure what our guys were expecting to be honest, but they obviously were not expecting what they had in the first 20 minutes," he said. said Tisdale at the BBC Three Counties Radio.
"It's winter football, there is little sun, there are very few opportunities to play football, they have to be a lot noisier."
A happier return
Fourteen months after being fired by West Bromwich Albion, Tony Pulis was back at The Hawthorns for the first time as Middlesbrough manager.
After Pulis left and four months under Alan Pardew, the Baggies were relegated to the championship and Darren Moore is now at the helm.
It's fair to say that Pulis had a happier comeback in the West Midlands region than in his last win – when Albion was defeated 4-0 by Chelsea in November 2017 – while his team of Middlesbrough was coming back to beat the Baggies.
Second-half substitute Britt Assombalonga scored twice in eight minutes to give Boro a 3-2 win and tie with his opponent and only one place in fifth behind the goal difference. .
"I enjoyed some parts but not all," admitted Pulis in his post-game interview with BBC Tees. "It was a little more because there was no impression of bringing in players.
"It's the football club of fans, I'm only a guardian."
The misery of Stoke continues
Two days after signing a three-and-a-half year contract with Burnley for Stoke City, the price of the reservation would not have been revealed. Sam Vokes' chances of playing in Hull City would have looked promising.
Less than two minutes after Jarrod Bowen put the Tigers in the foreground with a nice free kick, the Potters won a penalty after the Vokes crash.
The Welsh international was ready to make the headlines of this first season crowned by a tying goal.
However, Hull City goaltender David Marshall has saved, aggravating the misery Stoke has had from the penalty spot lately.
The absence of Vokes means Stoke has failed to score five of his seven penalties taken in the Championship this season, with four different players missing – including Benik Afobe twice, Sam Clucas and Saido Berahino.
"We had the opportunity [to equalise] and you can not continue to miss them, "Stoke boss Nathan Jones told BBC Radio Stoke.
"We changed the takers of the penalty, so it's not the same missing, that put us on the back."
Weimann finally marks
When Andreas Weimann scored the Bristol City winner against Swansea City in August, Robins fans praised him as the ideal substitute for former striker Bobby Reid.
Reid's 21 goals last season earned him to be transferred this summer to Cardiff City, newcomer to the Premier League, and Weimann was relocated from Derby County to fill the void.
The 27-year-old's attack at Liberty Stadium was his fifth goal in five games and Lee Johnson's plan seemed to be in full swing. And then … Weimann just stopped marking.
Four months have pbaded, during which the goals have been rejected and the woodwork has been hit, but still not the sixth goal of the season.
Saturday, however, his 24-game, 160-day wait has finally ended. The opponents? The city of Swansea.
"Everyone knows that I have not scored in a long time and that things have gone well against me," said the Austrian, whose goal helped the Robins to enforce 2 -0 Ashton Gate. "I do not think they can take this from me."
Red light in blue
Lee Tomlin's red card in Peterborough United's 1-0 defeat by Plymouth Argyle on Saturday could, at first glance, not seem particularly remarkable.
However, the 30-year-old has been sent off four times in his last 21 appearances in the Posh, after two episodes with the club. And the statistics are quite remarkable …
- Since joining Peterborough for his first stint in 2010, Tomlin has been sacked seven times in 135 league games for the club.
- Between his two visits to Posh, he played 146 league games with five other clubs – Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Bristol City, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest – during which he was not ruled out at all.
- In addition to the four red cards – including two for the second offense to be booked – he received five more yellow cards for the club during that period.
It is fair to say that Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson was not happy with the striker for his last dismissal.
"Do not give an arbitrator the choice to make a decision, it's as simple as that," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
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