RICHARD Chaplow has told Burnley's Championship rivals: "Keep on underestimating us!"

Chaplow is now concentrating all his efforts on performing well for the Clarets, following his goalscoring exploits with the England U20s last weekend.

And the Turf Moor favourite believes Steve Cotterill's side can build on their impressive start to the season if opponents keep writing off their chances.

Chaplow said: "I think everyone has underestimated how good a set of players we actually have.

"As a team we are incredibly close, probably through being such a small collective. But when we started playing together we knew we could achieve things this season.

"Quite a few people were doubting us because of the size of the squad, but the football we have been playing and the way we are going about our business, on and off the pitch, has been brilliant.

"Everyone has being playing their part and we all have a feeling we can do well. I know it's optimistic and some might laugh, but play offs? Why not?

"If we can get a few more players in the squad and keep clear of injuries, there is no reason why we can't set ourselves that target."

Joint league leaders Ipswich are, however, unlikely to believe Burnley will be a pushover at Portman Road this weekend.

Five clean sheets in six league games will have given Town manager Joe Royle a huge headaches as he tries to find a way to unpick the best defence in the Championship.

And Chaplow insists Burnley do not deserve their reputation as the spoilers of the division.

"We are a hard team to beat and everyone now seems to be queuing up to call us negative because we've had a few 0-0 draws," he added.

"But we've had a tough run of games and, for a while it seems like every team we have played has been at the top of the league.

"That is set to continue at Ipswich, so they just keep coming, but we have proved ourselves to the rest of the civision and are sending a message out that we are a force to be reckoned with and there's no reason we can't be beating the top teams."

BURNLEY reserves entertain Bury tonight in their latest Pontin's League game. Kick off at Turf Moor is 7pm.