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CAMBRIDGE boss Mark Bonner will celebrate one year in the job on Friday.

Initially promoted as a temporary measure to fill the hot-seat after Colin Calderwood’s sacking, the former academy manager was not expected to be in charge for long as the club assessed their next step.

But Bonner brought about an immediate turnaround in interim charge, winning his first four games including one against Stuart McCall’s City, and made up their minds for them.

He became one of the youngest bosses in the EFL and is now leading the U’s on a promotion charge.

Could this be the blueprint that the Bantams might yet follow?

City emerged from their own dry January by blunting the League Two table-toppers and extending their unbeaten run under Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars to a sixth game.

The fact that it was 25 days since the previous outing against Port Vale – and you couldn’t see the join – was worthy of more post-match plaudits.

Bonner had questioned whether the visitors could go the distance after such a lengthy mid-season break.

The answer was emphatic as City finished the stronger side – and but for a freak of physics would have been celebrating a fourth success for their young bosses.

Maybe it was the leaf-blower that had something to do with keeping the ball out of the net as Gareth Evans wheeled away in the early stages of celebrating his first goal back as a Bantam.

Cambridge groundsman Ian Darler has been looking after the Abbey Stadium pitch for 42 years – and has even written a book – but there can’t have been many times when he has been called upon to clear the snow like that.

Nor will anyone recall seeing an incident like the left-foot effort from Evans that pinged against the inside of the far post, trundled along the line to bounce off the other one and then come back again before home skipper Greg Taylor could calmly side-foot clear.

In hindsight, maybe someone in City’s colours – which were almost invisible in the pre-game blizzard – should have been following in. But then anybody not convinced it was going to cross the line is a liar.

The overall result was a fair one, check the identical shots tally, and City will not have traipsed home with too many feelings of “what if”.

It just felt good to finally be playing in 2021 after the three postponements.

The deluge of white stuff in the hour leading up to kick-off might have had a few wondering what January would throw at the Bantams next.

But we’ve already seen that it takes a lot to ruffle Trueman and Sellars and that calm air of control was evident from the off against a home team who had roared into pole position during City’s inactivity.

Cambridge were playing their sixth game of the new year – the Bantams had only been on a pitch three times since their Valley Parade meeting the week before Christmas.

Yet they appeared to carry on in the same organised, confident fashion that had rejuvenated spirits during that undefeated run around the holiday period.

Two games against the leaders, four points and two clean sheets – a fourth shut-out in six underlining that solid structure that has been put in place.

Lee Novak’s talismanic presence was missing up front – and City will find out in the coming days about the severity of his knee problem – but Danny Rowe slotted straight in.

It was the striker’s fourth visit to Cambridge, all with different clubs, after previous games at the start of his career in the Conference for Fleetwood, Lincoln and Stockport.

But his initial impression suggested a cult hero in the making for the City fans watching on iFollow.

To quote the marvellous Alan Partridge, Rowe has got a “foot like a traction engine”.

Just ask the poor keeper who tried to hold a shot at training on Friday and ended up in the net with it!

Rowe’s first effort on goal on his debut was struck with such velocity that Cambridge keeper Dimitar Mitov popped his shoulder in the process of parrying the rocket away.

A second-half blast forced a diving save from replacement stopper Callum Burton and a free-kick fizzed just wide as the former Oldham man showed his determination to hit the ground running.

What was good to see was his willingness to look for a shot whenever the opportunity presented itself. A quick half-turn and bang, no messing.

Those around him, perhaps, could have followed suit with promising build-up play let down on occasions by someone trying to overplay and taking a touch too many around the Cambridge box.

The difference in league position was never apparent as the teams went toe-to-toe on a difficult pitch made skiddy by the earlier snow.

Cambridge had their moments in the first half – but Paul Mullin once more fired a blank against the Bantams.

League Two’s top scorer with 20 goals in all competitions but none of them past City’s determined rearguard.

Not that Mullin did not have the chances to get back on the scoresheet after a four-game “drought”.

He had four sights on goal in the opening 45 minutes – but could find no way past Sam Hornby.

The back-up keeper made it back-to-back clean sheets in Richard O’Donnell’s absence.

But this one, after his previously quiet stroll three weeks earlier, had to be hard earned. On this evidence, he can be a genuine contender to be first choice.

Hornby denied Mullin with an athletic tip over the bar and then produced a crucial save right before the break after the striker was played in by Wes Hoolahan.

It was the type of juicy opening that Mullin has gobbled up throughout this goal-laden campaign. But Hornby spread himself quickly to narrow the angle and turned the shot away with his body.

The only real escape for City came when Mullin scooped over from eight yards after right back Kyle Knoyle had cut an inviting ball back from the byline.

There were no such squeaks in the second half where City carried the greater threat – and the introduction of Jordan Stevens for the last 20 minutes injected an element of pace that Cambridge had not had to cope with up to that point.

A couple of decent opportunities were scorned with a wayward final ball but City would still have got their maximum award with a kinder bounce for Evans.

That might have been a bit “greedy” in Trueman’s words.

But the long delay has clearly not affected the new managers’ bounce.