Sir Alex Ferguson's Son Darren Leaves Top Club One Week Before Manchester City Clash

• Peterborough co-owner Darragh MacAnthony confirmed Darren Ferguson departed the club over the weekend
• Ferguson leaves Peterborough with the club second from bottom, five points adrift of safety after defeat to Derby County
• In his last post-match interview, the 50-year old criticized the club, saying players lacked desire, effort and quality

Sir Alex Ferguson’s son Darren Ferguson has quit his job as Peterborough boss, barely a week before the FA Cup fifth round tie against Manchester City.

Sky Sports reports that Darren quit through a phone call to the club chief Darragh MacAnthony on Sunday, February 20.

The departure came at the back of a 1-0 defeat to Wayne Rooney’s Derby County on Saturday, a defeat that left them with one win in the last two months.

This was Ferguson’s third spell with Peterborough, and he left with the club second from bottom on the log, five points adrift of safety.

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The club released a statement confirming the departure, saying:

"Peterborough United can confirm that the co-owners have accepted the resignation of manager Darren Ferguson following a phone call made by Darren to Darragh MacAnthony on Sunday."

From the manner in which the 50-year old spoke after the game against Derby, there were signs that he felt defeated by the job.

"You look at the way the game went and the amount of shots we had on target was nowhere near enough,” he said.

“We’re lacking quality in terms of really getting a foothold in games and there was so much space when the game went to 10 vs 10.

“All we had to do was keep switching the play but we found it too difficult. We didn’t move quickly enough.

“We’re not lacking heart, desire and effort, but just pure quality.

“It’s tough for the lads, we haven’t many players in that whole squad that have played any Championship so it was always going to be tough and so it proved.”

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Paul Ince poised for return to football management

In related news, Sports Brief reported that Championship side, Reading, have named Man united legend Paul Ince as their new manager in an interim capacity.

Ince landed the exciting role following the sacking of Veljko Paunovic who was shown the door despite winning at Peterborough on Saturday, February 19.

The Royals battled Peterborough to 3-2 crucial victory at Preston in a result that left them five points clear of the drop zone.