Ex-Lincoln City attacking midfielder Jack Payne recently revealed his frustration from his time at City and his time under Michael Appleton, which left him with no choice but to pursue other opportunities and leave Sincil Bank.
Payne signed for City and was a magnificent capture by the Cowley Brothers and was considered a player that could take us places. On his day, he was the most creative player in the league and I firmly believe he was as technically gifted as we could have got, but a perfect move turned to disaster for Payne when Danny and Nicky moved onto Huddersfield Town and Michael Appleton was appointed as City head coach. Payne left City having played 30 games and scoring twice. He unfortunately departed as another player who couldn’t quite reach his levels while wearing a City jersey, despite providing promise and potential.
Payne revealed all in an exclusive interview with The Lower League Look, and spoke about the Cowley Brothers, Michael Appleton, Being Dropped for Jake Hesketh and much more.
“I joined Lincoln when the Cowley brothers were there and I signed for them. I signed for the manager and ten games later he signed for Huddersfield.”
Jack continued on to speak about Appleton, and what happened when he was appointed, and how he tried to combat not playing. The attacking midfielder’s last start for City came against Wimbledon away from home, a game which he scored in and despite being a regular under Appleton for a short period, he got dropped with no reason as to why.
“He [Appleton] kept me in the team and I was buzzing about it, but a few games in it changed. My last ever start for Lincoln I scored away at Wimbledon and then I got dropped”
“I knocked on his door loads and asked why I’m not playing and he never gave me a proper answer”
Jack was very complimentary of Lincoln City as a football club, and claimed he had no grudges against the people involved.
“It’s a shame because Lincoln is a good club, it just didn’t work out. I have no grudges against Appleton or the club.”
Jack continued to try and to improve his game to get back into the team, but despite having the evidence to show he should be in the team, Appleton never changed his stance and that left Jack with no choice but to leave the club.
“I knocked on his [Appleton’s] door a few times and I never got a straight answer. I went in with a piece of paper with my stats compared to other players that were playing. He said to me I like that you’ve done that, but I still never played.”
It is evident throughout this podcast that Jack was obviously frustrated with his time at Lincoln as were the fans but he suffered from the change in management and the rebuild that Michael Appleton was undergoing with the club. Jack was a top player for the club in the short time he was here and it was clear he had quality, and lots of it. That is shown with his resilience to work his way back to League One level and earn a move to Charlton in the summer.
You can listen to the rest of the podcast with Jack from the The Lower League Look, which I’ll put below. Jack speaks more about City and what it was like to work under the Cowley Brothers, and then moving away from the Imps Jack went into detail on his vast career, so it’s a very interesting listen.