Martin Jol was forced into two changes as Pavel Pogrebnyak was unable to recover from an ankle injury in time and Danny Murphy was ruled out through illness. Diarra came into midfield and Alex Kacaniklic was handed a full debut on the wing following an impressive showing against Norwich City a week ago.

Clint Dempsey led the line while Brede Hangeland captained the side on his 200th Fulham appearance, at the ground where he made his Whites debut more than four years ago.

After a cagey opening, the first shot of the game fell to the home side after quarter of an hour. Former Fulham midfielder Darren Pratley fed David Ngog down the right who cut the ball back into the path of Ryo Miyaichi. Fortunately for Fulham, the youngster from Japan got his effort all wrong and sliced over the bar.

Fulham had to wait five more minutes for their first decent chance when Dempsey held the ball up well before finding Damien Duff on the right-wing. The Bolton full back made the mistake of allowing Duff to cut in on his left-foot but the Irishman’s fierce low drive flashed just wide of Adam Bogdan’s near post.

The away side did have the ball in the back of the net on 24 minutes after Dempsey slotted past Bogdan after Duff’s shot from range had ricocheted into his path but the Texan was ruled to have been in an offside position when Duff’s initial effort came in.

But the boys in black wouldn’t have to wait long for a goal as Dempsey netted his 20th of the season in emphatic style. Fulham were awarded a free-kick 25 yards out in a central position after Ngog brought down a marauding Diarra and Dempsey stepped up to blast the set piece into the top-right hand corner leaving Bogdan with no chance whatsoever.

Dempsey was enjoying himself and tried his luck again minutes later with an audacious overhead kick from Stephen Kelly’s cross. Bogdan’s goal was in little danger on this occasion though. Bolton responded through Ngog’s turn and shot and Nigel Reo-Coker’s drive but Mark Schwarzer wasn’t especially troubled by either effort.

In the last minute of the half Fulham doubled their advantage and it was Dempsey again showing that he is more than comfortable playing the role of lone striker. Damien Duff beat Bolton’s left-back Marcos Alonso to give himself a yard of space to loft over a cross and Dempsey ghosted in to power a header into the back of the net.

Owen Coyle needed a drastic improvement from his relegation-threatened side and attempted to alter the balance of play by introducing Kevin Davies and Chris Eagles at half-time.

The changes did see Bolton create a couple of opportunities at the start of the second period, but neither effort by Eagles or Martin Petrov were on target.

Damien Duff had given Alonso a miserable first 45 and continued in the same vein in the second period. Just before the hour mark he skipped inside the Spaniard before arrowing a left-footed strike towards the far corner but Bogdan was there to make an excellent one handed stop to deny him.

Moments later Clint almost secured the perfect hat-trick when he ran with the ball into the box but dragged his left-footed effort narrowly wide at the near post. He then turned provider as he sent Duff through one-on-one but again Bogdan showed great reflexes to deny the Irishman.

There were concerns for Fulham on 73 minutes when Bryan Ruiz, who had enjoyed a splendid game in behind Dempsey, was stretchered from the field of play. The Costa Rican was replaced in the middle of the park by Dickson Etuhu.

With 10 minutes to go Fulham wrapped the points up as Diarra notched his first goal for the Club. John Arne Riise bombed down the left-wing and played a tantalising cross into the six-yard box for the former Real Madrid man to slide the ball into the back of the net.

Substitute Marcello Trotta could have added his name to the scoresheet in stoppage time after dancing his way into the penalty box but his low effort was too close to Bogdan so Fulham had to settle for just three goals as they secured a well-deserved third away win of the season.