The goalscoring admission from Portsmouth favourite and former Barnsley and Coventry City striker after recent Ipswich Town struggles

And Chaplin believes teams in League One are targeting him and former Blues winger Marcus Harness to silence the Tractor Boys’ attacking threat.

The 25-year-old netted a double in his side’s 4-0 triumph over Bracknell Town in the FA Cup over the weekend.

However, it represented his first appearance on the scoresheet in 12 games in all competitions, as Chaplin struggles for consistency in front of goal.

It follows an impressive start to the campaign, where he registered six strikes in his opening eight league appearances.

Pompey fans know more than most that goals come like London buses for Chaplin, who netted 25 times during his Fratton Park career.

But that inconsistency is something the striker wants to rectify as he aims to fire Ipswich to the Championship.

He told the East Anglian Daily Times: ‘I’ve been very purple patchy throughout in my career.

‘Going right back to the start I’ve always had spells of four or five games where everything seems to go for me, then four, five, six, seven where it doesn’t.

‘The number you end up on is ultimately what you look at, but I would probably rather they were spread out a bit more.’

Chaplin was joined by former Pompey winger Harness over the summer, with the pair going on to score 15 goals between them in all competitions so far.

However, they’ve both seen their numbers dry-up in recent weeks and the striker insists other teams have changed their defensive approach in order to silence the duo, before Harness’ injury last week.

He added: ‘I think people have seen the goals that me and Marcus (Harness) have been getting and are definitely trying to screen us and man-mark us.

‘We’ve scored quite a lot of cut-backs this season, but now a lot of people are risking the ball across the face of goal and coming to cut-backs before the cross has even happened.

‘That’s a challenge for me. If you’re doing well people are going to try and find ways to make you less effective. It’s exciting to get on the training ground and try and work out other ways to get goals.’