Peterborough United captain delighted to deliver Vertu Trophy as parting gift to fans

He scored the second goal at Wembley as Posh saw off League One champions Birmingham City 2-0 in Sunday’s final.

The goal was just his fifth goal in all competitions of a season that his been blighted by both injuries and poor form in spells.

The 23-year-old chose to stay at the club in the summer, despite offers from the Championship, and will depart for free in the summer, having been part of two EFL Trophy wins.

When asked if victory was the perfect way to sign off, Kyprianou instead dedicated the win to the fans for sticking with the side this season as well as admitted the weight of Posh’s perfect Wembley record was playing on his mind.

He said: “I’m so proud of everyone at this club. It’s been a tough season and it was important for us to give something back to the fans for sticking with us all the way through.

“Everyone wrote us off today, the press, them, all their supporters thought they were going to win easily, but there is so much belief in this club. We tried our best and got over the line.

“Finals are completely different games. Last year, we were the favourites and it doesn’t really work the way you expect it to work. It was about staying in the game as long as possible and I was hoping we were going to nick one as there’s no doubt they’re a quality team.

“Going 2-0 up was mad, I did not expect that first half. We did go 2-0 up at their place at the start of the season and they came back so I said to the lads, stay in the game and don’t give them any hope. Once their fans get on them, it will make it tougher for them and give us a lot of confidence.

“Everyone had to play their part today and every single one of us had a defensive responsibility.

“We could have won it by more, Ricky had a couple of chances we could have scored. All in all, everyone put a shift in and we’ve got to enjoy this moment.

“The season has been disappointing. There’s been ups and downs and that was for the fans. To lift that trophy as captain of this club is important. I had the Wembley record in the back of my head so I had to keep that as captain. You can’t beat this feeling.”