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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Beaconsfield Town. He has previously played for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

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 level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

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 level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

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 United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. The club compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1946 from the merger ...

, Barnet and Hayes & Yeading United.

Early life

Payne was born and grew up in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, where he attended Brighton Hill Community College.

Club career

Payne began his career with

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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 is a professional association football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in EFL League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton ...

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 is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

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 level 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 of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

and was fouled for a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

, 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 was most recently 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 ...

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, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

. 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 tie against

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

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

. Payne played 95 league and cup games for Woking. He left the

Conference Premier The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National Leagues and step 1 of the National Le ...

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 football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

. 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 Barnet 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. After starring for Maidenhead Cosmos in the latter part of the 2022/2023 season, Payne signed with Beaconsfield Town for the 2023/2024 season.

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 assault is an offence in English law. It is committed by a person who causes another person to apprehend the immediate use of unlawful violence by the defendant. In England and Wales, the penalty and mode of trial for this offence is pro ...

following an incident in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

town centre in May 2012; upon conviction Aldershot terminated Payne's contract.

Career statistics

References

External links

*
Cheltenham profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Josh 1990 births Footballers from Basingstoke Living people Men's association football midfielders English men's 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 men's semi-pro international footballers 21st-century English sportsmen