THEY may derive their name from a by-product of urine – but there's no grounds for extracting the proverbial from Amkar Perm's 15-year history.

The team that Fulham meet in next Thursday’s Europa League play-off really does have a title based in natural waste.

Amkar is short for Aminak (ammonia) and Karbamid (urea), and the side from the northern Ural city started life as a works team from a fertilizer plant, kicking off at the exotically-named Missile Fuel Stadium in 1993 before joining the city leagues a year later.

Since then they've defied a limited budget to climb from regional leagues to establish themselves among the petrodollar-rich Russian Premier League.

And last season's fourth-placed finish - ahead of UEFA Cup and Supercup winners Zenit St. Petersburg as well as Moscow powerhouses Spartak and Lokomotiv - booked Amkar on their first ever European adventure.

Not that the fairytale was achieved with fantasy football: 31 goals in 30 matches suggests Montenegran coach Miodrag Bozevic fashioned a side that was as hard to watch as it was to beat.

Bozevic has since moved on, though his influence remains in the form of fellow Montenegrans Nikola Drinchich, a rugged holding midfielder, and Mitar Novakovich. Experienced Bulgarian Dimitar Dimitrov has taken over coaching duties.

Dimitrov, renowed for a fiery temper, prefers an attacking game and this changed approach caused problems early in the season.

But after a 4-1 drubbing at Spartak Nalchik was followed by a 5-1 reverse against Spartak Moscow, some kind of compromise was reached, and a more cautious approach on the road has seen the team creep into mid-table.

Exciting right winger Nikolai Zhilyaev remains the main attacking threat, charged with supplying lone striker Martin Kushev, one of three Bulgarians in the team.

Georgi Peev, an experienced midfielder who began his career at Lokomotiv Sofia before winning three Ukrainian championship medals with Dinamo Kiev, is a fans' favourite, while right-back Zakhary Sirakov picked up rave reviews for his display in last Sunday's narrow 1-0 defeat at CSKA Moscow.

Another star that day, goalkeeper Sergei Narubin, has played a key role in the team's top-flight success - and the team's cautious approach means he gets plenty of practice.

No former Soviet side would be complete without a sprinkling of stray Brazilians, and Amkar are no exception.

Striker Jean Carlos is the attention grabbing one, having arrived from a stint at Levski Sofia. He is joined by midfielder William , who came via Serbia's OFK Belgrade.

Although Perm is a city of almost 750,000 people, travelling fans to Craven Cottage are likely to be thin on the ground. The club website this week advertised an all-inclusive trip from 35,000 roubles - in a city where the average monthly wage struggles to reach 30,000.

And while the club's rise from total obscurity to top-flight stability echoes Fulham's own journey over the past decade, the Whites should be rightly confident of overcoming this Euro hurdle to reach the group stages.