Premiership: Cottagers captain hoping to ignore fiery Smith

Alan Smith, the man with the reputation as the most abrasive striker in the Premiership, will have to go some to wind up Andy Melville.

The Leeds and England Under-21 star is renowned for trying to get under the skin of his opponents but Melville, the quiet captain who has led Fulham into the Premiership, is convinced he can keep his cool when the two sides clash at Craven Cottage on Sunday.

‘‘You get verbal off most professionals but I don’t think it will be a particular problem playing against him. You just have to concentrate on your own game and not get involved in it,’’ he said.

Melville displayed his composure by picking up just three yellow cards all season as Fulham ran away with the First Division title to secure their return to the top flight after a 33-year absence.

He admitted: ‘‘You never know what will happen in a split-second decision but you hope you will be disciplined and that the rest of your players will too.’’

But both Melville and his defensive colleague Rufus Brevett, who rates Leeds a tougher prospect to play against than Manchester United and Arsenal, know they will have their hands full, whether it is Smith who causes the problems or not.

‘‘They are going well and they have had success in Europe. It will be a good test for us. They are going to finish in the top five so we will see how far we have come by playing against them,’’ said Melville.

Brevett, whose soccer education was conducted in the Leeds manner as he played under Elland Road legend Billy Bremner during the late Scotland star’s second spell as manager of Doncaster Rovers, is a self-confessed Leeds fan.

‘‘It is going to be a massive game. I like Leeds a lot. They are a strong team, very well organised, very physical and, I believe, harder to play against than Manchester United or Arsenal,’’ said the 32-year-old left-back, who arrived at Craven Cottage via Queens Park Rangers.

He is currently enjoying what he describes as the best spell of his career, relishing the pure football philosophy of coach Jean Tigana, who arrived from France with immaculate credentials.

Fulham, unbeaten in their last four Premiership matches, are currently running into the sort of league form their fans, maybe somewhat optimistically, expected following their record-breaking Division One championship season.

The meeting with Leeds precedes a December which could make or break their top-flight season.

Skipper Melville said: ‘‘It’s a big month coming up with a lot of points to play for. We’ve put some points on the board recently and hopefully we can keep it up but we can’t really think about our hopes for the season until we see where we are at the end of the year.’’

He admitted: ‘‘Everybody thought we would walk into the Premiership and win week in and week out but it doesn’t happen unless you work really hard at it.’’

The jump to the Premiership initially posed new problems for Fulham and Melville added: ‘‘Performance wise we were doing OK but now the results have changed and we’re having a decent run at the moment. The last four league games we have been more aggressive and have stopped other teams playing. We have been right in their faces.’’