Peterborough United star Hector Kyprianou on facing his old club and his old manager

Hector Kyprianou (red) in action for Orient. Photo by Jacques Feeney/Getty Images

Kyprianou was a shock £400k signing from the Londoners in June 2022, at a time when he had made 66 Football League appearances for a struggling O’s team without scoring a single goal.

The Cypriot under 21 international was a slow burning influence at Posh, but the return of Darren Ferguson as manager in January was the catalyst for dramatic improvement.

Kyprianou (22) is now one of the first names on the Posh teamsheet. He looks set to start Saturday’s home game against his old club and the manager, Richie Wellens, who let him go.

Hector Kyprianou in action for Posh at Portsmouth. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

"I cannot speak highly enough of Richie," Kyprianou admitted. “We were in a bad spot towards the bottom of League Two when he was appointed manager at Orient.

"In the dressing rooom we didn’t really think we would go down because of the quality we had, but Richie turned everything around reallly quickly.

"He gave us the confidence to play our football and he took the pressure off us. We picked up some good results towards the end of the season to carry momentum into the following season.”

Kyprianou left that summer, but he wasn’t at all surprised Orient ended up winning League Two to join Posh in the third tier.

They found it tough at the start of this season, but two wins in their last three matches against Cambridge United and Exeter City have served notice on Posh not to take tomorrow’s visitors lightly.

"I wasn’t surprised Orient came up and I was delighted for them,” Kyprianou added. “I still have a couple of big mates in the squad.

"They play a good style of football with everyone comfortable on the ball, but we know their strengths and we’ve been working on their weaknesses so we will be ready to go out and attack the game.

"The gaffer reminded us of football’s fundemantals after the Portsmouth game. He said if we don’t scrap and don’t battle we won’t pick up points, no matter who we are playing against.”

Kyprianou moved to Orient from Harlow Town in 2018. He Made 79 apperances for the Os in total (59 starts) and scored one goal in an FA Cup tie against Newport County.

Kyprianou has made 54 appearances for Posh (36 starts) and scored five goals.