Aston Villa facing fine over Bristol City defeat

Aston Villa are likely to be fined more than £25,000 after seeing seven players booked during their defeat at Bristol City on Saturday.

The Villans had made the perfect start to the encounter when Jack Grealish put the visitors ahead inside the first five minutes, but City struck back three times in the space of 22 second-half minutes to stun the promotion hopefuls.

Jordan Ayew, James Chester, Ritchie De Laet, Tommy Elphick, Mile Jedinak, Grealish and Leandro Bacuna all found themselves in the referee's notebook in the final half hour as the contest slipped away from them.

Villa now look almost certain to be handed a hefty cash fine for failing to control their players, with Manchester United having previously being fined £25,000 for having six players booked in 2015.

The result at Ashton Gate left Villa 16th in the Championship table heading into the international break.