PAUL Buckle's newly promoted Torquay United return to Plainmoor tonight as a Coca-Cola League Two side when they face Championship neighbours Plymouth Argyle in a pre-season friendly (7.45pm).

It will be the first time Buckle and his triumphant Gulls have been back on 'home' turf since winning at the home of English football, Wembley, in May, when they overcame Cambridge United 2-0 to claim the Blue Square Premier play-off promotion spot.

Torquay won last time out at Plainmoor, when goals from front man Tim Sills and England C international midfielder Nicky Wroe deservedly earned them a crucial 2-0 play-off semi-final first-leg cushion against Histon, the springboard for a 2-1 aggregate success over the Stutes.

Sills went on to head another goal in the final to take his season's tally to 21 and top the Torquay goal scoring charts for a second successive season.

The Romsey-born forward famously wore a mask to protect his fractured cheekbone throughout the play-offs – earning him the nickname Zorro – but few among the thousands of Gulls' supporters at Wembley realised that Sills also suffered a bad ankle injury during the first half of the final.

The 29-year-old target man recently revealed: "I ruptured one of the ligaments in my [right] ankle and, if it had happened during the season, I would have been out for six or seven weeks.

"So, if you can have a good time to get that sort of injury, it was in the last game.

"I had injections and strapping put on it at half-time – there was no way I was going to miss the second half of that game, and then I got the goal."

Sills had his ankle packed with ice for the post-match Wembley press call but is now back to fitness and featured among the now customary wholesale second-half substitutes introduced by manager Buckle for last Thursday's 4-0 opening pre-season friendly win at Buckland Athletic.

Sills explained: "I've had the close-season to rest and allow the ankle time to get better."

Torquay goalkeeper Scot Bevan has used the close season for his own recovery from an ankle injury, but the combination of unforgiving, hard under-foot pre-season surfaces and a return to a rigorous pre-season training regime means that he is likely to sit out tonight's match as a sensible precaution, after playing the first half against the Bucks last week.

Last season's skipper Chris Hargreaves – who struck a memorable, cracking opener at Wembley – is also set to miss out playing against one of his nine former clubs, after a nose operation during summer.

The popular 37-year-old midfielder, who started his career as a forward, made 90 first-team appearances for the Pilgrims in a two-season stint between the summers of 1998 and 2000.

Meanwhile, 35-year-old left-footer Lee Hodges – who joined Torquay from Plymouth last summer – is set to face his old club, as is new teenage striker Ben Joyce, United's 19-year- old former Home Park trainee. He became Buckle's first summer signing after scoring two second-half goals against the Bucks, following his release from Swindon Town.