Darren Ferguson returns as Peterborough United manager

Ferguson won back-to-back promotions with Peterborough

Darren Ferguson has been named manager of Peterborough United on a four-and-a-half-year contract, just 14 months after leaving by mutual consent.

The Scot, who led Posh from League Two to the Championship during his previous three-year spell with the club, was sacked by Preston two weeks ago.

He held talks on Tuesday with chairman Darragh MacAnthony and watched the 2-1 League One win against Brentford.

"I've actually missed the place," Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"I had a hard 12 months at Preston and I'm glad to be back.

When he came to the house and he walked in the door we had a bit of a hug . It was a tender moment Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony

"I don't know if I've lost the trust of the fans, we'll find out, but the fans enjoyed it [his last spell].

"People say you never go back, I don't believe in that. We're ambitious and we want to get into the Championship."

Ferguson, son of Manchester United boss Sir Alex, left London Road in November 2009.

At the time MacAnthony believed the former Wrexham midfielder was being distracted from his job by interest from other clubs.

But both parties insisted that any problems had been put behind them.

MacAnthony said: "We were probably naive and made mistakes and we both held our hands up to that.

"It was actually great meeting each other again, when he came to the house and he walked in the door we had a bit of a hug. It was a tender moment, a bit of a tear jerker.

"We had a real warts and all meeting, talking about everything about each other that maybe irritated each other at one stage, any problems we may have had and they were never massive problems."

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Ferguson added: "There was no falling out, we're young, we're ambitious.

"Maybe towards the end I got, not carried away, but you can get a little bit complacent with the success we had.

"But we never fell out about it, I think we both agree we've learned a lot in the last 12 months and probably were a little bit naive going into the Championship.

"And when we get back into the Championship we'll learn from that."

After ending his previous spell at the club Ferguson was out of work for almost two months before taking over at Preston in January 2010.

The Scot won only 13 of his 49 games in charge at Deepdale and left in December with North End bottom of the Championship, the same position in which he had left Posh only 13 months earlier.

But his memories of Peterborough, who he joined as player-manager in January 2007, will be predominantly good ones.

After leading Posh to promotion from League Two in is his first full season in charge, he repeated the feat a year later to secure a place in the Championship, and departed having won 73 of his 145 games at the helm.

Gary Johnson parted with Peterborough by mutual consent on Monday.