Despite only joining his new teammates a week before Phoenix's A-League 3-2 loss in Newcastle, the former Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Millwall marksman turned in a solid 68 minutes at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

But Ifill saw his performance differently - and the 29-year-old was blunt in his assessment, admitting he was underwhelmed by his game.

"No, not really, to be honest. It was a safe, rather than spectacular performance," he said.  "I think I held the ball up fairly well but I needed to be receiving the ball in better areas where I can do damage, and that wasn't the case.

"That's down to me, being a creative player, to put myself in positions where I can be a threat."

The experienced Ifill confessed he perhaps tried to do too much after limited training time to form combinations with his teammates.

"I was getting frustrated and I found myself getting deeper and deeper and taking on a bit of a defensive role, which is not really my game," he said.

"We didn't seem to do the things we'd worked hard on and done well at training; we didn't play good football and try to build things from the back.

"The pitch didn't help, it was awful. We like to keep the ball down and pass it, but the conditions forced both teams to try and go aerially and from our perspective that's not what we're about."

Ifill admitted before the Jets game that he was short of peak match-fitness and was hoping to get by "on adrenaline".

"But I didn't feel too bad, really," he said. "The medical team did a great job getting me ready and I thought I probably had another 10 minutes left in me against the Jets.

"I'm working hard now and doing extra training in my own time, so hopefully I'll get 90 minutes against Perth Glory on Sunday.

"We've worked on a lot of things collectively and individually. I think we'll be good going into Sunday."

Ifill said a much improved all-round effort would be needed if Phoenix were to roll Glory after a tentative start against the Jets saw the Kiwi-based club go two goals down after 22 minutes.

However, one major positive was the resolve and grit Phoenix showed to level the scores at halftime courtesy of goals from Ben Sigmund and Ifill's fellow Briton, Chris Greenacre.

ilfill added: "I don't know if we were nervous but we just didn't seem to get on the ball like we know we can do and before we knew it we were 2-0 down.

"Siggy's goal gave us belief and Greenie's goal to get us back to 2-2 was excellent. When we came out in the second half, I thought we looked strong and that we'd go ahead and win the game, to be honest.

"But unfortunately the goal didn't come for us. While there has been some finger-pointing at the defence for the loss, it comes down to all of us.

"It's about Greenie and myself, as well, to be making better movements. The goals will come."

Confidence and belief within the Phoenix camp was strong.

"We've worked hard on the things that went wrong and we've all been honest and said the performance in Newcastle wasn't good enough," revealed Ilfill.

"I think if we'd got beaten 3-0 then we'd have been really worried. We showed good resilience to get back to 2-2, only to let it go with six minutes to go.

"A lot of teams would have rolled over at 2-0 down and away from home in the first game of the season. We didn't - that character bodes well."