Former Perth Glory striker turned Australia youth coach Alistair Edwards will replace him in the hotseat until the end of the season while a worldwide hunt is underway for a permanent replacement.

Ferguson's exit comes after his side picked up only two points from their last eight games, and haven't won a match since before Christmas.

The side hasn't even scored a goal in more than five hours of football in a devastating turnaround in fortunes that has seen last year's grand finalists propping up the foot of the table.

"Bottom of the ladder with the squad we have assembled is unacceptable," said Sage today. "He is a man of integrity and with everyone questioning his ability, he decided it was time to quit."

Ferguson, 45, admitted after Saturday's 2-0 loss against Melbourne Heart that his job was now on the line.

"I've got another year left on my contract, but if Tony came and patted me on the shoulder tomorrow and said I was fired, there's nothing I can argue with," said the former Rangers defender.

"I'm big enough and ugly enough to know that my job is about results and at the end of the day, Tony will make that decision on me.

"I'm hurting at the moment because of where we are and what we achieved last year and to me not to get to the finals this year would just be failure.

"I don't think we deserve to be where we are at this moment in time with the football we've been playing, but that's football."

Australian-born Alistair Edwards, 44, began his career with Rangers in the home country of his Scottish parents before a brief spell with Sydney Olympic.

An unsettled run of clubs around Asia finally saw Edwards join Perth Glory in 1998 where he enjoyed his best football, scoring 24 goals in 93 appearances before moving into coaching.

He has worked with the national men and women's youth teams as well as a spell at the Western Australia National Traning Centre, and is currently the Joeys coach for the Australian U17s.

He has been give a two month sabbatical by the FFA to take the post temporarily.

Sage added: "If Alistair decides he loves being an A-League coach, it will be up to him to apply for that job."

Fellow former Glory midfielder Gareth Naven, 43, will step up from the youth team to be Edwards' assistant until the end of the season.