Shrewsbury Town are delighted to announce the signing of Stefan Payne for an undisclosed fee from Barnsley.
Stefan was on loan at the Montgomery Waters Meadow during the second half of last season and signs a two-year deal with the club.
“I’ve known that the Gaffer and Doigy have been interested in me for a long time”, said Stefan.
“For me, my loan spell here was very good in the end and it’s good to be back. Footballing wise it was an easy decision, but you have to consider the family moving and things like that. That is the hard side and you have to take it into consideration, but footballing wise it was a very easy decision.”
Stefan got off to a nightmare start with Town last season, suffering an injury 12 minutes into his debut, but he made a good contribution in the last few weeks of the season and he is hoping to contribute again.
“It was a nightmare to get an injury at the start, but that’s football”, admitted Payne.
“I was just glad to get the injury out of the way and make an impact. With my injury I felt like I wasn’t really contributing, but to score the winner against Rochdale and to score an equaliser against Walsall, I felt like I contributed to keeping the club up.
“As a striker you are judged on scoring. You can play good for 20 games and not score and no one will really look at you. You play not so good for 20 games, score 20 goals and everyone has a look at you.”
Payne had been on the bench for all four of Barnsley’s games this season, coming on three times, but he is now looking forward to starting games with Town.
“I haven’t played as much as I wanted to, but that’s behind me now and I’m concentrating on what I can do for Shrewsbury”, said Stefan.
“Coming on in the Championship is all well and good, but I want to be playing week in week out. I want to score as many goals as I can and with games and fitness I am confident that I can do that.”