Fulham player-coach John Collins was delighted after his new side eased past Crewe.

Collins replaced manager Jean Tigana at the post-match conference. The Frenchman has said he will not speak to the media after matches until his English has improved.

Collins said: "That was just the start we were after. We played some good stuff. "At half-time it was stressed we must be patient and it all paid off.”

The former Everton midfielder played for Tigana at Monaco and built up a close friendship. He told how he was happy to be reunited with him, and said: “It is great to be back working with Jean. He is a great manager, especially at club level.”

He said Tigana was impressed by Fulham’s performance during his first league match in charge.

"The manager is happy because all that was lacking today was the finishing touch and to be fair their goalkeeper made some good saves,” he said.

"On a personal level I enjoyed the match from start to finish."

Crewe boss Dario Gradi was not so happy and said: "We did well to get away with a 2-0 defeat. "We were so poor we just followed them about. We did not defend well, it was the Fulham forwards who were off-target for they should have got a few more today.

We must do better than this and we can."