Kit Symons's job application is getting better with each passing game. Having masterminded Fulham’s first win of the season, he has followed it up with Fulham’s first victory at Craven Cottage in the Championship. Following on from last week’s progression in the League Cup, Symon’s has left the ground smiling three times in 8 days. 

The recipe seems fairly simple. Symons has brought the smile back to the team. The stories of departed manager Felix Magath’s training ground tyranny have occupied the back pages since his departure, making players run for 45 minutes and then pouring the water out of their water bottles and dropping players on a whim. 

It’s in wooing these experienced troops back into the fold that Fulham’s fortunes have changed. For starters Symons has put Bryan Ruiz back in the team. An outcast under Magath, despite a wonderful World Cup, the Costa Rican captain is looking like the composed visionary player that Fulham thought that they were buying. Despite not scoring, Ross McCormack looks like a striker you might pay some money for, obviously not £11 million. 

The game started with Hugo Rodallega scoring an early goal and just before half time with Fernando Amorebieta headed a second. That made the second half a stroll, and it was no surprise when Lasse Vigen Christensen and Tim Hoogland wrapped up the match. 

Symons said of his free-flowing charges: “Bryan is a great player. We saw in the World Cup what we can do. He’s the type of player who needs to enjoy his football and look like he can play it. Bryan, Fernando and Hugo, the three amigos, we couldn’t get them in before and now they are on the training ground playing together, it’s lovely to see.” The manager says he was not privy to everything that went on under the Magath regime but he has now changed “loads.” 

Now the focus must be on visiting manager Dougie Freedman. How he must rue his decision to leave Crystal Palace to take over the supposedly bigger Bolton side. They look wretched, with no shape and no movement. Fulham leapfrogged Bolton after the win and one wonders whether it will be Bolton who will soon be hoping that a managerial change will lead to an upturn in fortunes. 

But Freedman argues that he’s the man for the job, especially given the financial constraints the club are under. “I think I will be given the time to turn things around because we have to look at the big picture and is changing manager every five minutes the answer? It’s an unforgiving place the championship and I get it.”