Mohamed Diame had given the visitors the lead, but goals from Steve Sidwell and Dimitar Berbatov either side of half-time were enough to give Meulensteen the win, moving Fulham out of the bottom three and banishing memories of Saturday's 6-0 thrashing at Hull City.
West Ham were down to 10 men before the break when Kevin Nolan was given his marching orders for kicking out at Fernando Amorebieta, but the Fulham boss has played down the significance of the incident.
"We played well, we started off playing well, taking the conditions into account you need to have good concentration with slick passing and movement," he said after the game.
"To concede an early goal like that was obviously not in the plan but the players reacted well and we kept on playing and we deserved an equaliser.
"I was actually hoping for more from that first half to be honest. Obviously the sending off helped us because you've got more space and more possession but it's still important to find the right balance between being patient but still creating chances."
The Dutchman was happy with his side's reaction to their KC Stadium hammering and believes that their latest victory proved it to be merely a disastrous one-off.
"People make more out of it than it is," he added. "At the end of the day it was a defeat, we lost three points, if it had been 1-0 nobody would have been talking about it.
"Nobody saw it coming. It wasn't the trend, the trend was actually very positive."
The 49-year old was also full of praise for match-winner Berbatov, who scored on his return after a three-game absence.
"He knows how important this win was," the former Manchester United coach beamed. "And I was delighted that both him and Adel Taarabt were able to start.
"We weren't able to take the risk in previous games but we did with this game.
"It paid off to wait that long because he got us the winner."
