Steve Bruce is hoping "common sense prevails" when Birmingham face a Football League disciplinary commission today after failing to fulfil their home Championship fixture with Leeds in January.

Blues took the decision to re-lay their St Andrew's pitch a week before the Leeds game after striker Nicklas Bendtner had suffered a serious ankle injury as a result of the previous surface during the FA Cup tie with Newcastle.

They purchased the ‘spare’ pitch for the new Wembley at a cost of more than #100,000 and were assured it would be relaid and ready to play on in the space of four days. The club even called in the Football League’s own pitch agronomist to give them advice.

But severe weather conditions - more than four times the rain fell than had been predicted - meant the work could not be completed in time with the game consequently called off 24 hours beforehand.

The worst scenario is that Blues could be deducted points but a large fine is the likely outcome. Bruce said: "We had the new pitch waiting for three weeks to install it but we didn’t do it when we originally planned in December because of the frost and fog.

"We waited until after the game with Newcastle to get the pitch done. There is a difference between a heavy pitch and a dangerous one. Ours was dangerous.

"Bits of the surface were coming out in lumps and leaving holes and the players were in danger as you saw with Bendtner whose ankle went down a hole. We were told it would be relaid in four days and we were supposed to be training on it on the Thursday and Friday before the Leeds game on the Saturday.

"We spoke to the Football League’s own pitch agronomist and we even spoke to the weather guy John Ketley. He predicted it would just be the average amount of rainfall but unfortunately the rain just washed everything away.

"We were due six millimetres of rain while the work was being carried out and nearly 30 millimetres fell in one evening. It rained for 15 hours solid.

"The preparation work was washed away and the pitch people were trying to lay the new surface on this absolute quagmire and it was just a nightmare.

"I hope the Football League just look at everything and that common sense prevails. We did our utmost and the most important thing for me was the safety of the players. I’d be upset if they decided to deduct points."

Bruce bristles at suggestions that he wanted the game postponed because his side were missing a couple of key players at the time. He said: "I’ve heard all this tittle tattle that I wanted the game off. That is total and utterly ludicrous.

"I know for a fact Leeds were hunting around for a goalkeeper on the Thursday before the game because their keeper had got injured.

"It would have been a great time to have got them and we had real momentum at the time. The last thing we wanted was games called off.

"With no disrespect to Leeds, they were down at the bottom of the table and why shouldn’t we want to play them?

"We also lost the police bill, the match programmes, the meat pies, the beer, the corporate hospitality etc so you can imagine I was getting it in the neck. It cost a fortune. But there was nothing we could do."