HECTOR BIDS FOR A SLICE OF HEAVEN AFTER HELL
ELEVEN months on from his worst moment in football, Peterborough’s Hector Kyprianou is hoping for a Wembley redemption against Wycombe this afternoon.
Leading 4-0 after the first leg of last season’s League One play-off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday, Posh somehow contrived to draw the tie 5-5 on aggregate before losing on penalties.
Since that heartbreaking collapse, however, the 22-year-old has made his international bow for Cyprus, become a mainstay in Darren Ferguson’s, below, ultra-attacking side and is now 90 minutes away from winning his first piece of silverware.
“In the off-season last year, I really used what happened as a driving force,” says the former Leyton Orient midfielder. “After I’d wrapped my head around it, I said to myself - and to the close people around me - that I was looking for redemption this season.
“On and off the pitch, I’ve worked so hard, probably harder than I ever have before. I’ve done everything possible to make sure this season is successful and it’s just nice to see good things come from that. Now I’ve just got to keep it going.”
Enfield-born
Kyprianou was on the books at Orient when
Justin Edinburgh’s side lost to AFC Fylde in the FA Trophy final of 2019 and sat in the stands when boyhood club Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-finals a decade earlier.
“I don’t remember much about it except Didier
Drogba scoring the winner,” he recalls. “He always scored against Arsenal though, didn’t he?”
This, though, will be his first time playing under the arch and he will be watched by a horde of family and friends - many of whom have jetted in from the continent.
“I’ve got a lot of friends coming, a lot of family,” he says. “I’ve had some cousins come from Cyprus, some family come from Greece.
It’s a big occasion for everyone involved.
“It’ll be a proud moment, especially for my parents, to see me walking out at Wembley, just because of everything they sacrificed for me to get to this stage.
“I imagine it’s the same for every single player on that pitch. I know what families have to do to get to this point, so to sit there and see their sons play at the pinnacle of football - I just feel honoured to give them something back.”
For all Kyprianou’s talk of redemption, he insists the pain of last season has faded and he is now motivated only by finishing this campaign on a high. Peterborough are, after all, back in the play-off mix and in with a slim shout of automatic promotion.
“Listen, it’s still there in the background,” he admits. “But throughout the season I’ve kind of realised that what happened is in the past and we’re writing our own story now.
“Personally - and I know the boys think the same thing - we try not to look back. It’s a new group, a new set of players have come in and we’re here together on a new journey.
“A lot of them had nothing to do with last season, so it’s not about righting a wrong or anything like that. It’s about writing a new chapter and that’s what we’ll be hoping to do.”
As will Wycombe, but it is Posh - 23 points better off in League One - who are understandably favourites. Does Kyprianou buy into the bookies’ assessment?
“We know how talented we are and how good we can be,” he says. “But we’re not focussing on that sort of stuff. It’s a one-off game and it’s who turns up on the day. We just want to be the best version of ourselves.”