Edinburgh's players had plans to stage a hog roast yesterday afternoon.

Given the hunger they demonstrated in their victory over Ulster on Friday evening, it would be no great surprise if they dispensed with the roasting bit and just scoffed the porker raw. Suddenly, they look like a team who actually want to win.

That alone represents a marked contrast to the impression they were giving before Michael Bradley's contract with the club was brought to a premature end a few weeks ago.

At the start of this season, Bradley had said he wanted to rid the side of the inconsistency that dogged them in the previous campaign – superb in the Heineken Cup, wretched in the RaboDirect PRO12 – but he achieved that only in the most perverse way, as Edinburgh became hopeless in both competitions.

Clearly, caretaker coach Steve Scott has freshened up the appetites of a group of players who had seemed alarmingly listless before he took over.

Stuart McInally, anonymous in recent months, was superb, with his back-row colleagues, Netani Talei and Ross Rennie, not far behind.

Edinburgh spent much of Friday's game on the back foot, but they showed a determination and resolve in defence that spoke of a massive attitude change. "Our defence was really good," Scott acknowledged. "To keep one of the best teams in Europe to one score is very pleasing.

"We need to make sure we enjoy the result, but let's not think we've cracked this. We've only played 80 minutes so nobody needs to get carried away with themselves."

Maybe not, but as Scott has made it clear that he is looking at the next few games as a probationary period, then he could be well satisfied with the start his side have made.

Granted, they were underachieving horribly under Bradley, so he would have struggled to make them worse, but there is a down-to-earth pragmatism about his approach that should give Edinburgh supporters reason to cheer after some of the waffle they have endured in the past few months.

Scott's outlook was forged in adversity. A decent hooker, he would never be counted among the greats as all 11 of his Scotland caps were won as a replacement. His playing days were effectively ended by the axing of the Border Reivers in 2007, and his move into coaching suffered a serious hiccup when, having been invited to join Sale by Mike Brewer, he arrived just in time to see Brewer being sacked by the English club.

Scott's own time at Sale ended earlier this season when, after a terrible start to Premiership campaign, owner Brian Kennedy decided changes had to be made. "It was a really tough way for a young coach to cut his teeth," Scott said. "But what I learned from that time will be invaluable to me moving forward.

"It is a dark place to be. I was just unfortunate to be there as a young coach. It happens to a lot of coaches, though usually further down their coaching career. The first thing you do is look at yourself. Your confidence does take a hit and it's about how you came back from that."

As Glasgow face a brutally demanding end to the season, Edinburgh's run-in could hardly be gentler. All four remaining opponents are in the bottom six of the PRO12 table, so they could yet lever themselves to respectability – at which point, Scott would be virtually unsackable.

Critics of the SRU's failure to promote home-grown coaches have hit a nerve at Murrayfield this season.

"If things go well I can make it really hard for them to overlook me for the job on a permanent basis," agreed Scott. He is right to urge caution after just one win, but the stars do seem to lining up rather nicely for him right now.