Richards: We played for each other
Chris Richards hailed Crystal Palace’s strength as a unit after a 2-0 win over Leicester City made it a club-record six Premier League away matches without defeat in a row.
A middling first-half display paved the way for a clinical second, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Marc Guéhi providing accomplished finishes to seal the three points and lift Palace up to 14th in the table.
The fact that it came after a week when many of Palace’s players were sidelined with illness was only testament to their collective strength, Richards agreed.
The United States international said: “Yeah, we’ve had a few sicknesses throughout the last few weeks, but that's no excuse. We're a team that's very determined and we just want to play for each other.
“Anytime we can step on the pitch, whether it's home or away, we want to make sure that we try to get a few points.
“At half-time we came in very disappointed with ourselves, but I guess the positive was it was probably one of the worst halves of football that we’ve played this season, so we could only go upwards from there
“The second-half started off still a bit slow, but we ended up getting a goal and then that changed the whole momentum. I think the boys up top did really well and then of course Marc, to finish the game off… it was a really impressive game today.”
Richards also spoke fondly of fellow defender Trevoh Chalobah, who returned to Chelsea after spending the first portion of season on loan at Palace.
“I think throughout this whole season we've had good players who are even better people, and Trevoh’s one of those people who kind of helped drive that culture we have in the group right now,” Richards reflected.
“He will be missed, but life goes on without him, so now it's time for people all around the team to step up one more step, and then hopefully we can continue this run.”