Peter Taylor today denied that he had any part in City’s game with Burton getting called off.

Referee Neil Swarbrick pulled the plug just 90 minutes before Saturday’s kick-off after ruling that the middle section of the Valley Parade pitch was frozen.

Burton boss Paul Peschisolido was left fuming about the late postponement – but Taylor insisted it was nothing to do with him or City’s injury problems.

He said: “It’s absolute rubbish if Burton think I’ve had any influence on the referee. We had a good little training session on Friday and were ready to play. I wasn’t trying to get it off.”

Taylor admitted he had concerns on Thursday after the previous night’s heavy frost but was assured the game would be fine.

But while driving towards Valley Parade just after midday, he got a call from facilities manager David Dowse to warn that the referee was not happy. Taylor met the official to view the pitch and agreed that it should not go ahead.

He said: “It was rock hard down the middle from the 18-yard line to the centre circle and he felt it was dangerous.

“As soon as I walked onto it, I didn’t think it was playable either.

“It was difficult for the ref because it wasn’t the whole pitch. The majority of it was fine but I think it would have been more dangerous to carry on if it was good in certain areas but not in others.”

Taylor revealed that Tommy Doherty was in the City starting line-up after they decided to hold back his ankle operation. The influential midfielder is still expected to go under the knife.

The City chief added: “We were going to take a chance with him. We pulled him out of the operation and he’d trained fine on Friday.

“David Syers was also fine to play, so for anyone to say that I pressured the referee in any way is total nonsense.

“I saw Darren Moore and he said their players felt it wasn’t playable. I don’t think either team would have enjoyed playing on that pitch because they would have had no grip.

“Steve Williams did a little bit of running on there and he couldn’t turn. I know he’s not 100 per cent but you couldn’t have played on it like that.

“It was the right decision but just a shame about the timing.”

City came in for an extra training session yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Crewe.