CHAIRMAN Mike Burke hailed the response of Bromsgrove Sporting’s supporters in the wake of an FA charge over smoke bombs.

Sporting has been asked to report back to the governing body amid claims of a breach of rule E20 during the FA Vase victory at Wisbech Town last month.

The regulation stipulates clubs are responsible for ensuring “all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers conduct themselves in an orderly fashion” and do not “throw missiles, bottles or other potentially harmful or dangerous objects at or onto the pitch”.

Similar allegations were made against Sporting fans following the 3-3 draw with Worcester City on Boxing Day but no sanctions followed.

Burke vowed to ban those proven to be involved in lighting pyrotechnics but a lack of evidence up to now has prevented individuals from being punished.

A club statement released on Wednesday pleaded with fans to adhere to the rules ahead of Saturday’s next step on the road to Wembley – a last-16 tie at Thatcham Town (3pm) – amid fears Sporting could be thrown out of the FA Vase.

But Burke, who confirmed Bromsgrove had granted Thatcham’s request to provide extra stewards, expressed his confidence that regular fans would do their bit to try to stamp out the problem.

“It was something that happened and what made it worse was that they (the smoke bombs) went onto the pitch,” said Burke.

“That said, we got the message out on social media and the response was amazing. The fans are going to help us by policing it.

“When you post these things on Facebook, you usually get a variety of opinions but everyone agrees this needs to be stopped because no one wants to put at risk all of the hard work put in.

“There may be people who don’t follow Bromsgrove regularly and turn up for glory matches but I am sure our great group of supporters will make every effort to stop anything happening in the ground that may cause us further embarrassment.

“Next time it might not be a fine. We could be asked to play behind closed doors or be faced with a protest from an opposing team that it affected their players.

“The FA can dish out any punishment they see fit. Anything that happens will be based on our record so we don’t want a pattern emerging.

“Hopefully all of this is behind us now, though, and the idiots that thought it funny have grown up a bit.

“If they want to continue to enjoy what we’re creating at Bromsgrove, they need to act properly in support of the club like the vast majority do.

“We started to see at Wisbech the ill feeling towards this behaviour from our proper fans, who will be at Thatcham in great numbers again.

“There are three coaches going down with more on the train and in cars. It is overwhelming to see the support we are getting and I cannot praise our fans enough.”