‘We’re still the same team that beat Plymouth 5-1’ – Jack Payne confident Charlton Athletic will click back into top gear

Jack Payne was a part of the Swindon Town team that went on an excellent run at the start of October – and he sees no reason why Ben Garner cannot repeat similar form at Charlton Athletic.

The 27-year-old attacking midfielder scored his first goal for the Addicks in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Barnsley.

It extended Charlton’s winless run in League One to six matches. Their last three-point haul was a 5-1 thrashing of Plymouth Argyle in SE7 on August 16.

The Pilgrims moved top of the table at the weekend and are unbeaten in five games – winning four – since their heavy reverse at The Valley.
Charlton, by contrast, dropped to 16th after defeat in Yorkshire.

Garner’s Swindon hit a purple patch around a year ago as they won nine and drew once in 11 matches with Payne a key playmaker in his side. A similar return for the Addicks would propel them into the promotion picture.

“Over a full season I have no doubt we’ll come good,” Payne told the South London Press. “Once things click we’ll keep going.

“Look at what we did to Plymouth – we beat them 5-1 and they are top of the league now. That result was not a fluke. We’re still the same team. We need to get in that mindset and it will happen for us.

“I’ve played hundreds of games in League One and been involved in promotions out of it. This squad has got some really, really good players.

“There are 20 players who could easily be starting – the standard is so high. There is no question about how good they are.

“If you look at Saturday’s game, at half-time, we’ve got in a lot better positions and they score one wonder goal. We definitely looked like the more dominant side and I don’t think they would have felt too comfortable at that stage.

“The scoreline looks bad, but there are still positives to take.

“I know we’re 10 games in, and we can’t keep saying it, but we are definitely going the right way about things. We’re getting some really good opportunities and chances. But we also need to change the mindset that if we don’t take the first couple we can’t get our head down and think it’s not going to be our day.

“We know we’re going to create chances and if we don’t take the early ones we’ve got to keep going.

“We will score goals. We’ve scored in pretty much every game. We need to try and be more clinical but also close the back door, try not to concede as much. It sounds simple but in the grand scheme of things we’re playing some good football and getting into good areas. Even defensively, teams are not carving us open. We’ve made a few individual mistakes or things seem to be falling to other teams right now.”

Garner wants any criticism for Charlton’s lean spell to fall on his shoulders.

He promised attacking and possession-heavy football when he was appointed in the summer.

The Addicks are eighth in League One for shots on target and third for possession (averaging 56.1 per cent) behind Derby (60.4) and Ipswich (60.2).

“No matter who you are in a football club, you have to look at yourself,” said Payne, who has played 192 matches in League One.

“The manager and staff are naturally going to look at themselves. But, as players, we have to look at ourselves – 100 per cent.

“If we look at Saturday’s game, as a whole, then tactically there is not much wrong because we’ve been the better team in terms of getting in the right areas, chances and possession. All the stats would probably be in our favour.

“The fact we haven’t won comes down to individual mistakes at the back and not being clinical enough up front.

“The only time you might get away with not looking at yourself is if you’re at a club where you’re not getting the information during the week and you’re going into a game without the tools. But that’s impossible to say here, we get all the information. We know how the other team is going to line up and what we’re going to do.

“As soon as it comes to Saturday, and we step on to that pitch it is down to the players.”

Payne could take pleasure from opening his goal account for Charlton, finishing neatly across Jack Walton.

The Addicks’ number 19 was left doubting himself after being denied at Fleetwood the previous weekend, unable to make contact from a couple of yards out when Mandela Egbo’s cross came back off the post.

Payne said: “At the time I was thinking ‘should I have reacted quicker?’. I was thinking so many things.

“I’ve watched it back and it’s just a freak incident. The chances of it hitting the post and not either dropping in or falling to me is unbelievable. I was devastated.

“To get a goal in the next match is a big relief, because you start to think ‘when is it going to happen for me?’. That should have been the easiest goal of my life but it didn’t drop for me at Fleetwood.

“A week later Jayden sets me up for a nice little goal.

“Of course I’m gutted about the result – and you’d rather your first goal be in a win, where it counts for something more. To get that first one is a big relief. Hopefully that opens the floodgates and I can kick on now.

“Playing as an attacking midfielder, you always dream about the perfect goal where it comes to you on the edge of the area and you score a worldie.

“Realistically, more times you are going to get chances by chasing things up and trying to anticipate things. I know where Jayden [Stockley] wants me to be and we talk and try to build on that.

“Hopefully I can set him up a few times and we can build a relationship. I’ve managed to set up Miles [Leaburn] a few times. It’s about building relationships across the pitch.”

Payne was also left annoyed that he did not get credited with the assist for Leaburn’s goal against Argyle.