PLOTTING A GIANTKILLING BUT CAMBRIDGE BOSS BONNER NEVER EVEN MANAGED A PUB TEAM

Rookie boss making mark at his home club, The U’s

ROOKIE boss Mark Bonner had never even managed a pub team before he led Cambridge United to promotion last season.

Now he is looking to haunt Newcastle 50 years after their worst FA Cup nightmare against Hereford, before the Toon can spend the £300million loose change in their owners’ petty cash tin.

At 34 years and 106 days, Bonner (top) became the sixth-youngest permanent head coach in English football this century when he took over at the Abbey Stadium.

In a city famous for student gondoliers drifting along the River Cam, it has proved an inspired punt – and his team doesn’t lack audacity.

Former Republic of Ireland playmaker Wes Hoolahan (inset), who will be 40 in May, can still pick the lock in crowded League One boxes.

And with a 46 percent win ratio in his first 94 games as a manager anywhere at senior level, Bonner’s players have acquired the Abbey habit enthusiastically.

“Yes, this is my first job as head coach of an adult football team at any level,” he admitted.

“But I have worked at various levels in the academy from Under-8s to Under-23s, then as first-team coach, assistant manager and joint head coach.

“There seems to be a new wave of younger homegrown coaches coming through and I am grateful to be the recipient of one of those opportunities.

“Because I’ve worked here 11 years, and it’s the hometown club I supported when I was younger, I know the fabric of Cambridge United and where we are going, but I will never take this job for granted.

“The core of the club, from the chairman to the board and people like myself, is in the hands of Cambridge people.

“And it’s important to surround yourself with the skills you haven’t got – that’s where my assistant, Gary Waddock, is a major part of how our model works.

“Our job is to leave the club in a better place than we found it. We want to grow organically, sustainably, sensibly.

“We have already won promotion when we were not expected to go up.

“Now we are competing well at a higher level and we want to create some more memories along the way.

“In a sense, hopefully my relative inexperience is a virtue because I don’t feel weighed down by fear.

“Cambridge United is all I’ve ever known, but I’m surrounded by brilliant staff, a brilliant board and a loyal supporter base.

“We are taking 5,000 fans up to Newcastle, and we want to give them a really memorable day out.

“Let’s go there with the mindset of confident underdogs in an arena that will hopefully bring out the best in us.

We are humble enough to recognise where we are, but if we perform in a manner that reflects what we’re about as a team, we have nothing to fear.”

Newcastle’s record in the FA Cup since they last won the trophy 67 years ago reads like a threatening letter.

Luckily, manager Eddie Howe now has the funds to pay any ransom demand, but Bonner said: “We are probably of little concern to them.

“Newcastle have their own agenda and it’s not for me to second-guess Eddie’s priorities, or to know the psychology of the other team.

“Our budget is in the bottom quarter of the league, and a lot will be made of the gap between our resources and Newcastle’s.

“But every year, at this stage of the Cup, there’s always an upset and the unthinkable can happen.

“If we perform in a manner that reflects what we’re about as a team, then we have nothing to fear.”