That includes having your goalkeeper sent off in the fifth minute.

Phoenix's encouraging start to the season of four points in three games, after capturing the wooden spoon last year, was overshadowed by Saturday night's capitulation to Broadmeadow.

Perry Budden was shown a straight red card for a foul on James Virgili well outside his area and Magic went on to equal the NNSW NPL record for biggest winning margin.

Sills, though, said their problems were not new.

"The issue was before that and it's an issue that's been festering for a while," he said.

"We have trouble defending quality sides and teams who have pace.

"We didn't adjust very well and we'll go through it. But there will be changes, there has to be."

Another weekly frustration for Phoenix this year is that they always play a team who are coming off the bye.

"It's not an excuse by any stretch of the imagination but we play every team off the bye and so everyone has been refreshed, they are fit and up for it against us," he said. "It's not ideal."

They host Charlestown on Sunday at CB Complex.

"They haven't got the pace of Magic but they have a lot of quality up front," he said.

"They beat us twice last year and they haven't really changed a lot."

A plus for Valentine will be the return of Aaron Niyonkuru next week in the window for PPS changes. The fleet-footed attacker had been trialling in Spain.

"He's a good kid and he's good to have at training," Sills said.

"He's very, very quick and he's come back a lot better defensively."

Charlestown coach David Tanchevski expects to have experienced midfielder and skipper Matt Tull back from injury to give him a full-strength squad.