Big boost for Portsmouth play-offs bid against Bolton Wanderers, Peterborough United, Derby County Sheffield Wednesday & Co

The former Blues striker bagged a double to condemn top six rivals Peterborough United to a 2-1 defeat at Portman Road.

And a former Pompey manager and triallist also gave Danny Cowley’s ambitions of extending their season a lift, with none of the teams occupying the play-off spots winning.

Steve Cotterill’s Shrewsbury Town picked up a 3-2 stoppage-time victory at New Meadow, with Christian Saydee among the side’s scorers.

Kieran McKenna’s side stretched their unbeaten league run to seven games with a goal in each half from Chaplin doing the damage as they went top, with Plymouth drawing at Cambridge.

Frankie Kent levelled things up before the Pompey academy graduate settled things 13 minutes after the restart, with McKenna seeing the win as warranted for his side.

He told the EADT: ‘You get what you deserve eventually and I thought we got what we deserved.

‘The effort was fantastic. I'm proud of the players, proud of the spirit.

‘This was a difficult game against a difficult opponent in a tense stadium. The players stuck together and showed resilience and quality, at times, to win.’

The loss was Peterborough’s fifth on the spin in all competitions as their campaign hits the buffers.

Meanwhile, two Dion Charles goals weren’t enough to stop Bolton going down as Shrewsbury grabbed a come-from-behind win.

Robert Street put the home side in front before the Charles double put the Trotters in the ascendancy.

Saydee, who spent time with Pompey in the summer, levelled things up with 11 minutes remaining before Chey Dunkely won the game two minutes into time added on.

Burton also did Pompey a favour as the strugglers held Derby County to a 1-1 draw.

Victor Adeboyejo’s finish cancelled out James Collins’ 23rd-minute opener at the Pirelli Stadium.

And to round off as positive afternoon, Exeter also earned a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, with a late, late Callum Paterson leveller cancelling out Jake Caprice’s effort.

The results leave Pompey eighth in the table after their Accrington postponement. Danny Cowley’s side are two points off the top six with three games in hand on Peterborough in the final play-off berth.