Shrewsbury Town loanee Stefan Payne has a point to prove
Stefan Payne is determined to prove he can score goals in the Football League as he bids to fire Shrewsbury to safety.
The striker, who joined Salop on loan from Barnsley in January, enjoyed a prolific spell in non-league before being snapped up by the Tykes,
Payne netted 35 goals in 45 appearances for AFC Hornchurch before then scoring 43 times in 83 games for Dover Athletic.
That prompted a move to Yorkshire before Paul Hurst snapped him up on a temporary basis to aid Shrewsbury's fight to stay in League One.
Payne suffered a setback when he injured his foot 10 minutes into his Salop debut against Bury.
But with the injury now in the past, the 25-year-old is determined to prove he can score goals for Hurt's in-form side.
"I have proven that I can score goals but now I need to prove I can score goals in the Football League," he said. "I want to show what I can do.
"Building up the Bury game I felt I had trained really well, the gaffer started me and I wanted to repay him with some goals.
"But unfortunately, 10 minutes in, I got the injury.
"You have to just look at it as one of those things.
"I've had to get on with it and hopefully now I will get another chance to show what I can do.
"I'm feeling very fit and I'm raring to go."
Payne will now be part of the Salop squad that travels to take on MK Dons tomorrow.
Robbie Neilson's side sit just one point and one place above Town in the table. And after beating promotion-chasing Scunthorpe and Millwall over the past few months, Payne feels it's vital Shrewsbury now start to take points off the teams around them.
"We're going into the game in a good place," the striker continued.
"We are winning games and all the boys are buzzing.
"Now we're all really looking forward to tomorrow's game.
"If we play to our ability there is nothing to stop us going there and getting all three points.
"It's all well and good beating teams like Scunthorpe and Millwall but we need to beat teams – like MK Dons – who are around us.
"That is what really makes a difference to the table so these are the games we really have to be winning."
Payne was one of eight players brought to the club by Hurst in the January transfer window.
And the London-born star believes it's the character of all the new recruits that has enabled them to gel so quickly.
"When you sign a lot of players it can always go one of two ways," he said.
"Fortunately for us everyone has gelled and got on really well.
"I think we are all on the same wavelength. There are no egos. There are no bad eggs here, we all get on.
"It's character. If some players have got big egos or a bad attitude that is when you can get disruption in the camp.
"But there is none of that here and that is reflected in results.
"We are doing very well at the minute.
"We have lost one in eight. But now we need to continue that."
Joe Riley is ruled out with a hamstring injury so Hurst must decide whether to opt for Dom Smith or Jack Grimmer at right-back.
