Joshua James Payne (born 25 November 1990) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He has previously played for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...

, Woking,

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the club competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1946 fr ...

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

and Hayes & Yeading United.

Early life

Payne was born and grew up in Basingstoke, where he attended Brighton Hill Community College.

Club career

Payne began his career with

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

before moving to

. He was named as 2008–09 captain of the West Ham Under-18 team, but joined Cheltenham Town on an initial one-month loan on 24 September 2008. He made his debut for Cheltenham against

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

on 27 September 2008, scoring a goal in the 66th minute. Payne's loan with Cheltenham Town lasted three months before he returned to West Ham on 22 December 2008. Payne made his West Ham and

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

debut on 21 March 2009 in a 1–1 away draw against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

coming on as a 90th-minute substitute for Diego Tristán. On 22 October 2009 Payne signed for

on a one-month loan. Payne made his debut for Colchester on 24 October 2009 in a 2–1 home victory against

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

and was fouled for a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

, which resulted in Colchester's second and winning goal. Payne returned to West Ham on 20 November, having played only three games for Colchester, as manager

Aidy Boothroyd Adrian Neil Boothroyd (born 8 February 1971) is an English former footballer who is currently the manager of Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. At club level, he was manager of Watford from 2005 to 2008. During his time with Watford, he was r ...

decided not to extend his loan. On 22 January 2010

confirmed they had signed Payne on an initial one-month loan. Payne made his debut for Wycombe on 23 January, scoring in a 1–1 away draw against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. He returned to West Ham on 25 February 2010. In March 2010 it was announced that Payne's contract with West Ham would not be renewed beyond the end of the 2009–10 season. On 28 July 2010 Payne signed for Doncaster Rovers on an initial six-months contract after a successful trial period at the club. He made his Rovers debut in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

tie against

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

on 10 August 2010, scoring his first and Doncaster's only goal in a 2–1 defeat. On 31 August 2010 Payne joined

on a one-month loan deal, which was then extended for another three months. Payne subsequently signed a pre-contract agreement with Oxford, making the move permanent. He scored his first goal for Oxford from a free kick in a 3–1 home victory against Northampton on 23 October 2010. In January 2012 it was confirmed that Payne would be joining

on loan, initially for a month but later extended to the end of the season. On 5 March, the move was made permanent on a free transfer. On 24 June 2013, shortly after his release from prison, Payne signed for Woking. Payne played 95 league and cup games for Woking. He left the

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-professi ...

side at the end of the 2014–15 season to join

. After a successful debut season with Eastleigh, Payne decided to reject a new one-year deal to venture into

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

. On 26 May 2016, Payne joined

on a two-year deal. On 6 August 2016, Payne made his Crawley debut in a 1–0 victory against

, playing the full 90 minutes. On 3 October 2019, Payne joined National League club

on loan until January 2020. In January 2020, his loan was extended until the end of the season. His contract with Crawley Town was not extended at the end of the 2019–20 season. Following his release from Crawley, Payne signed a two-year contract with former club

in July 2020. He signed for

in July 2021. Payne left the Bees by mutual consent in January 2022. On 1 March 2022, Payne joined Southern League Premier Division South leaders Hayes & Yeading United.

Personal life

In December 2012 Payne was sent to prison for twelve months following a conviction for

actual bodily harm Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (often abbreviated to Assault OABH, AOABH or simply ABH) is a statutory offence of aggravated assault in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Hong Kong and th ...

and

common assault Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

following an incident in Guildford town centre in May 2012; upon conviction Aldershot terminated Payne's contract.

Career statistics

References

External links

*
Cheltenham profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Josh 1990 births Sportspeople from Basingstoke Footballers from Hampshire Living people Association football midfielders English footballers West Ham United F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players Woking F.C. players Eastleigh F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Ebbsfleet United F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Hayes & Yeading United F.C. players National League (English football) players English people convicted of assault England semi-pro international footballers