Phil Chapple began his footballing career with his hometown team but never broke into the Norwich City first team. He moved to Cambridge United for whom he made 187 league appearances scoring 19 goals. He was in a quartet of former Canaries alongside Jon Sheffield , Andy Fensome and Dion Dublin that almost took Cambridge into the Premiership in 1992, losing in the play-offs against Leicester. Since 1993, Phil played in Division One with Charlton Athletic for whom he had made 142 league appearances by the end of the 1997/98 season. In the 1998 pre-season, Phil joined Third Division Peterborough whom he captains but for whom he has made just 17 appearances due to injury.

Retiring from playing, Phil performed a number of roles at Peterborough including youth team coach, scout and head coach. However his time at London Road came to an end on September 22nd 2003 when the Posh parted company with him.

Phil has been coaching with the West Ham academy but in May 2005, joined non-leaguers Newmarket Town as coach. In 2007, Phil returned to Charlton Athletic as Chief Scout.