After having a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside in the win at Portsmouth, the England defender is in no mood to surrender his first half header.
“It is my goal, I am claiming it, definitely,” he beamed. “It has hit the post and then the goalkeeper. A striker would claim it so I am going to claim it too!
“There was a bit of luck in the header because you can never plan for it going right in the corner. I just aimed it towards goal.”
As well as inking his name on the score sheet, Richards was also a key provider in the 4-2 win. He set up Craig Bellamy’s second half strike.
“I am loving the extra freedom of joining the attack whenever possible. Shaun (Wright-Phillips) helps me coming back and I like to do the same for him going forward,” he enthused.
I like to use my pace to get into the opposition box and I set up Craig today which gave me as much pleasure as scoring the goal.
...Micah Richards
“That attacking part of the game is something that I am trying to work on. People say that I am strong defensively but that I am perhaps not so strong in the other direction. I am still only young and I think I am starting to deliver in that department and feel my game is developing all the time.”
Although victory gave the Blues a fifth straight Premier League for the first time since the competition came into existence, Richards is determined to keep his feet on the grund.
“Given who the opposition were today it had to rank as the best performance of the season but I am sure there is more to come,” he said. “We went into the match with a lot of confidence and as I have said before we now have a great spirit and winning mentality.
“We are happy that we have shown what a good team we are. People will no doubt now be talking about the top four and all that stuff but we are not going to get carried away or too excited there is another big game next week!
“What I would say is that is that we have the players to go where we want to be but it is all about consistency.”
