The Eagles fought back, against all odds, from 2-0 down after 75 minutes to claim a well-earned draw at the home of the reigning Premier League champions on Saturday.
After doing so despite well-documented injury troubles, Richards feels that the result for Palace – having gone so close to upsetting fellow title challengers Liverpool the previous week, save for late misfortune – could inspire the Eagles moving forwards.
The defender explained: “I think the Liverpool game, even though we lost, was a good way to step up, and City was just another step up, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going.
"We knew that, coming here [to the Etihad], we had to fight hard for 90-plus, so the goal at the end was just a way to reward us for the way we played today.
“When you come to City you know that they’ll have the majority of possession, so we just wanted to capitalise when we did have the ball, and that’s exactly what we did.
“We went 2-0 down but we looked around and realised we were still in the game. We had chances and it was just a matter of capitalising on them, so the more that we fought, the more the game opened up a little bit – and then what happened, happened.
“I think it was a good swing of momentum for us. The last two weeks have been pretty tough for us. We had an unlucky result against Liverpool and then we drew [at City], so hopefully going forward we can get more points.
“I can’t really pinpoint one person [who impressed]. It was a team effort, from the coaching staff to everybody on the pitch and all the substitutes. Everybody was behind each other from the first minute and that’s why we got a point.”