There was a promising first appearance for Oxford United’s new signing Jack Payne on Saturday. The former Southend forward came off the bench for the last half hour at Elland Road after signing on loan from Huddersfield the day before.
“I’ve trained every day and featured in the games, but not played loads” he told iFollow after the match. “Leeds was a hard game but it was good to get on and get some more minutes. I want to play as much as I can, and to contribute to the team, so hopefully I can be involved and get as many games as possible.”
Jack had plenty of clubs interested in signing him after he played a part in the Terriers reaching the Premier League last season. So why Oxford?
“There were many things” he said. “Firstly I had a good chat with the Manager before I signed and he told me about his philosophy and where he sees the club going and the ambition here. That was the main thing but I also spoke to other people and everyone I asked only had positive things to say about the club.
“I played against Oxford in the past and it’s always been a club that plays good football, which is going to suit my game so there were loads of positive factors that made me want to come here. My full debut was against Oxford and I scored, which was a great moment, so I have fond memories when it comes to Oxford and that was another positive.”
Over 300 of the Yellow Army saw Jack’s first appearance as United concluded their pre-season games, and Jack joined plenty of those fans in liking what they saw:
“There are some good players here and I was impressed” he said. “Watching the first 60 minutes gave me an opportunity to watch from the sidelines and see what the players are like and that was good .There were certainly a few I can see myself linking up well with and I learned a lot.”