SHELTON Payne has thanked Radcliffe Borough for helping him enjoy football once again.

The much-travelled former Trafford man picked up Boro’s player of the month award for October and now has five goals to his name after signing this summer.

Payne battled back from two years out of the game with an anterior cruciate ligament injury to make a big impact at the Neuven Stadium.

And the front man puts his success down to the close-knit dressing room fostered by Jon Macken and his coaching staff.

“I have had several clubs, more than I wanted to have but hey ho,” he told the club. “At all different levels, different styles, different places with different managers but here is much different. You only really know and enjoy football and the environment you’re in when you’re deeply happy.

“I haven’t really been truly happy since I played for Trafford under GV and Goody (Garry Vaughan and Wayne Goodison) and since then I’ve joined clubs where I haven’t really liked players, or a coach, a manager or training is boring.

“If something bugs me at a club me being stubborn I’ve left and got on with my day. Here is different, much different. The environment, group chat, lads, training, the gaffer, Frank (Sinclair), coaches, Marcus, the chairman all down to the physios are top draw and it’s a very good and enjoyable place to be.”

Boro return to action after a 14-day hiatus on Saturday, and can climb above their opponents, fourth-placed Prescot Cables, with a win.

Macken’s side have stuttered of late, winning just one of their last eight in all competitions, but Payne says there has been no discernible effect on the squad’s confidence levels.

“The results haven’t been going the right way for us,” said the former FC United man. “We’ve played well at times and lost, we’ve had decisions by officials go against us and we’ve had a bit of bad luck but that’s football unfortunately.

“It will even itself out through the season. We just have to stay positive, stay together and work hard in training. We as a team are doing these things so it is only a matter of time. We have to stay humble and take each game as it comes.”