Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner hails the purchase of the Abbey Stadium

Head coach Mark Bonner spoke like the 'boy that stood in The Habbin' as he reflected on the news that Cambridge United once again owned the Abbey Stadium.

Bonner – a lifelong U's supporter who worked his way through the club's academy before taking charge of the first team – was speaking after his side had marked the historic occasion with a 2-0 home victory over Lincoln City.

Asked for his reaction, Bonner said: "I told the story today to the boys before the game about what happened and where we ended up where we did.

"I was working here at that point and obviously the academy shut down at that period of time. I told them I had to go elsewhere before I could come back and live the dream!

"It's a big moment and it's about the football club and the longevity and the sustainability of the football club.

"You want your players to understand the fabric of your football club, you want them to understand a bit of the history and them to understand where we're going and where we've been – I think that's really important.

"But that's about supporters and legacy. I'm not the manager when I'm saying this, I'm the boy that stood in The Habbin, just like thousand of others who are here. If you were when we had to survive and selling the Abbey was the way we did it, we were so fortunate for Grosvenor to come in and take control because without them and so many other people that helped us get through those difficult periods, we wouldn't have arrived at this point we're at now.

"Now you just have to say to Paul Barry, to Mark Green and to Adam Webb – just remarkable really. What they've done in leading our club, the way in which they're helping us keep this squad together, the way in which they've got huge ambitions for the training ground, huge ambitions for this place (the ground).

"It's going to take time and it's a significant amount of funds gone into this, it's pretty remarkable we've found ourselves back in this position.

"I heard the best song today: "We've got our Abbey back". It's a great moment and you see how much coverage that got online yesterday, people know how significant that is. If you're a young fan that doesn't know, just believe the old ones when they say it's a massive moment.

"It puts the future of the club back in our hands and we have to say thanks to the owners for that because without them it definitely wouldn't be possible."

The win itself was fairly routine with two quickfire first-half goals from Joe Ironside wrapping up the three points that moves United up to fifth in the Sky Bet League One standings.

It also extended the winning run at home at the start of the campaign to four matches – the first time that has been achieved in the club's Football League history.

Bonner said: "I thought we were very good in the first half. We've spent quite a lot of time recently speaking about momentum in games and taking the game when it's there for us.

"We got into some really good attacking situations and we took the game in a five-minute period where I thought we were ruthless in our attacking display. It was a really good first-half performance, two excellent goals.

"The second half is not a situation we've been in too often. We played against a team that make the pitch big, they kept the ball from us quite a bit and we had to cover distances so it was tiring really.

"We didn't really carry much threat with the ball, however we didn't feel under much threat so the game was finely balanced.

"We just had to work and grind our way through it and in the end we've played 10 games in 36 days. The players get two days off for the first time since we came back in June and they deserve it."