ALEX McLeish has warned Villa’s players they are walking a disciplinary tightrope – after introducing a fines system to avoid needless suspensions leaving his squad stretched.

In eight league and cup matches so far this season, the claret and blues have picked up 19 bookings, including six in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

Last weekend’s half-a-dozen cautions triggered a £25,000 club fine from the FA and Eck will also financially punish players who unnecessarily get into trouble on the field.

It is common practice for manager to dock money from players for yellow cards, red cards and subsequent bans, but McLeish is particularly clamping down on avoidable indiscretions.

Villa’s boss is tolerant of bookings for honest, mistimed challenges and is reluctant to discourage his players from trying to tackle and compete physically during matches.

But McLeish is keen to outlaw unnecessary incidents where players are booked for dissent, play-acting or over-celebrating, like Gabby Agbonlahor’s yellow card at Everton.

Having only just seen Villa’s injury crisis ease – with five stars set to return to contention to face Wigan this weekend – McLeish could do without a glut of suspensions.

“There’s some bookings you can’t avoid and you can’t say ‘right you’re fined for that’,” he said.

“There’s got to be a bit of give and take.

“Unfortunately, if they get to the five and they’re suspended they’re automatically fined.

“With suspensions, you can control yellow cards to a certain extent if players can control their emotions. They can avoid the silly ones.

“Of course I’m not going to tell a player not to tackle anybody. Those are some things you can’t legislate for suspension-wise.