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Tim Sills

Tim Sills

Torquay v Histon

Torquay United will be looking to make home ground advantage count when they play host to Histon in the first leg of their play-off semi final on Friday night.

Gulls manager Paul Buckle has warned his charges not to adopt a home and away mentality in the play-offs as he is targeting two wins to fire them to Wembley.

After finishing fourth in the standings, the Gulls have been drawn to face Histon, who have the advantage of playing their home leg second due to finishing a position higher than the Plainmoor outfit.

However, Buckle is not too perturbed about how the encounter has been set out. "It doesn't interest me, this home and away business," he told This Is South Devon.

"There's one certain way to get to Wembley, and that's to win both games. That's what I'll be asking the players to do.

"We approach every game in the league season to win, whether it's at Plainmoor or away from home. I don't see why we should treat the play-offs any different.

"Our away record also speaks for itself."

The Gulls finished as the best travelling team in the Blue Square Premier after setting a new club record of 12 away wins. However, Buckle's men will be looking to win the clash at Plainmoor before they start thinking of Bridge Road.

The Gulls have been boosted ahead of the clash by the news that leading scorer Tim Sills will be ready to feature on Friday.

The hitman fractured his left cheekbone in the 2-1 win over Burton Albion, but he has decided to play on in a plastic mask.

"When you have invested so much sweat, and a little blood, in getting to this stage of the season, it would have been terrible to have dropped out now," he said.

Meanwhile, Histon manager Steve Fallon has revealed that his side will go out and attack their hosts in the first leg.

Fallon believes that the U's have weaknesses in defence and he will be looking to exploit them.

"Our intentions are to go out and attack," Fallon told Cambridge News Online.

"They're a strong side, but their home form isn't the best.

"If they've got a weakness it might be defensively. We're very strong up front and can get at sides.

"We have a decent defensive record, but we don't want to just knock balls about and be under pressure for 90 minutes.

"We've got to forget about the second leg and try to treat it as if this decides who goes through."

Danny Naisbitt will miss the encounter due to suspension following his red card at Crawley, with Joe Welch ready to deputise.

Danny Wright has a hamstring problem and will miss both legs of the play-off, while Josh Simpson is available following an ankle injury.

Posted: Friday , May 01, 2009

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Be nice to see eastbourne hit some form as well as they are my local team and i want to see them play... MORE >>

By neilybabe on Mon, 15th March 10