U’s displayed great mentality says Jack Payne.

Jack Payne said Colchester United had demonstrated a ‘great mentality’ in the previous week after defeating MK Dons on Saturday.

Payne scored in stoppage time against his former club to seal the 2-0 victory and three points for the U’s after Arthur Read put them ahead on 81 minutes.

Payne commented on Colchester’s overall performance, saying, “We know what MK are like; they’re a really good side.

“We knew we were going to suffer with the ball, at times, and we had to soak up that pressure.

“We also knew that we are really fit, well-structured and we knew we were going to have chances, which we did. It felt like we could have scored more. Once we got our goal, we built on that.”

Payne squandered an early opportunity for his goal after Milton Oni expertly picked him out after the U’s won possession.

He added: “To be honest, the only thing I am gutted about is that I didn’t get Milton an assist because, he won the ball back so well, he played a great pass to me, and he deserved the assist.

“I didn’t finish the first one. But luckily, it fell to [Arthur] Read, who dropped it to me. I think a few of the lads wanted me to go to the corner. I thought ‘I’m just going to give it a go’. I was so pleased to see it go into the back of the net.”

Colchester’s victory on Saturday capped off a successful week for the club.

They eliminated Reading from the Carabao Cup on penalties on Tuesday and now have their first points of the new League Two season.

However, it contrasts sharply with the previous week’s disappointing loss to AFC Wimbledon.

Payne praised the U’s subsequent recovery, saying, “Although I think the result was far from ideal, we learned so much from the game. The way we started gave us a lot of belief and we started really fast on Tuesday. So, we had that belief.

“We learned a lot from some of the mistakes we made versus Wimbledon, and we’ve taken them into the next two games and if you’re ever going to take a positive from losing, it’s how much you can learn from it. And we’ve taken that.

“It’s been a great mentality, the last two games, to be honest. Obviously, first home league game today, it was really important that we got a good result and build that relationship with the fans, which was massive.”

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