Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson says budget cuts have caused his side's slump from A-League grand finalists to cellar dwellers but he wouldn't blame owner Tony Sage if he fires him.
The Glory's horror run continued with a 2-0 loss to Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park on Saturday night, Perth's fourth straight loss and eighth consecutive winless match.
Asked how the Glory, runners-up last season, had sunk so far, Ferguson blamed squad depth.
"When you look at the grand final squad and what we've got now, there's a massive difference," Ferguson told reporters.
"(We had) experienced players and two fighting for each position. We've just not got that now because of huge budget cuts within the club."
Ferguson said senior players Billy Mehmet, Jesse Makarounas and Bas van den Brink quitting the club mid-season made it even tougher.
But he said there would be no excuses if Sage, due to have major heart surgery in the coming week, sacked him.
"I'm big enough and ugly enough to know that my job is about results," the Glory coach said.
"At the end of the day, Tony will make that decision on me ... I'm not going to quit, that's for sure ... I've got another year on my contract left but, if Tony came and patted me on the shoulder tomorrow and said I was fired, then there's nothing I can argue with."
Ferguson labelled next weekend's clash with top-placed Central Coast a virtual grand final for Perth.
The Heart climbed into the top six with Saturday night's win, highlighted by a wonderful first-half free-kick goal from Nick Kalmar.
From close to 25m, Kalmar curled it expertly over the Perth wall and it clipped the underside of the crossbar on the way in.
Striker Eli Babalj, recently back from a stint in Serbia, scored in the second half.
Perth couldn't capitalise on a series of good chances and were seemingly unlucky not be awarded a penalty for handball in the 67th minute.
Chuffed Heart coach John Aloisi said his side have to reproduce that form away, starting against Newcastle on Friday night, having not won outside Melbourne this season.
"If we want to make finals, we need to pick up a couple of results away from home," Aloisi said.
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