With Palace having dominated the opening 70 minutes of Oliver Glasner’s first game in charge – an aspect which only stepped up when Burnley were reduced to 10 men in the latter stages of the first-half – all that was missing was a goal.
Step forwards Richards who, timing his run into the box to perfection, stole in at the back post to find the bottom corner with a stooping header, paving the way for further goals from Jordan Ayew and Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Richards said afterwards: “It's good [to have] a 3-0 win at home, especially after the tough run of games we've had recently. The vibe's really high right now!
"The gaffer said to stay patient at half-time. I think we really trusted in his game plan, we trusted in our quality and we knew that eventually the goal would come.
“I've wanted it [my first goal] all year. Of course, you always like to score goals, but I think it was a very crucial goal in a very crucial game, so I'm very happy about it.
“Jordan was talking about hitting it back post the whole time, so I figured if T [Tyrick Mitchell] jumped with the man, I was going to be wide open, so I just tried to stay back post.
"Everybody likes to score goals. Fans like to see it, so it definitely changed the mood for the game, and the games coming up as well."
“I think another one’s coming!”
On the sending-off for Burnley after 35 minutes, Richards admitted: "it gave us a bit more time on the ball, but I also I think we knew that they were going to be dangerous on the counter-attack regardless of how many players they had, so we had to be clean on the ball and off the ball as well."
Richards also revealed Glasner’s message to his players: “Just take it a game at a time.
“Of course, we all know what position we're in, but we try not to look backwards, we try to look forward to the games that we have – because the only thing we can control is our effort and our output.
"Every week it's a new game, and if we just give 100% and play to our strengths, hopefully we can keep going higher and higher."