Swansea substitute was his side's hero after bundling in his side's 67th minute winner seconds after coming on the pitch to seal a 2-1 victory at Rochdale.
Untidy Rochdale never recovered from this, although they did give the Welshmen a fright or two in the late stages when they went all-out for a life saving point.
But the Swansea defence, with a bit of luck, held firm and saved three vital survival points.
It was the Welshmen who took the lead in the match when lively attacker Kevin Nugent headed home on 13 minutes.
But this was cancelled out three minutes before the interval by Rochdale defender Gareth Griffiths, who met a free-kick from David Flitcroft with his head and the ball went past goalkeeper Neil Cutler into the net.
Early in the second half Rochdale appealed for a penalty when substitute Darren Hockenhull was flattened, but oddly the ref gave a free-kick in the other direction.
Subsequently Rochdale had one or two narrow escapes and, never really in their stride, they made it easy for Swansea and their survival bid.
They were in a mess when Richards grabbed the winner and were even more at sea when Richards got away again soon afterwards. Goalkeeper apart there was not a defender in sight, but Richards made a mess of it giving goalkeeper Matthew Gilks a difficult shot, but not difficult enough to stop him from getting a hand to it.
There were more chances for the Welshmen, but not a lot of takers, and they nearly paid heavily from missed opportunities in the last ten minutes when Rochdale went all-out for the face saver which did not come.
It was a bad result for Rochdale player-manager Paul Simpson, waiting for an end of season decision whether he keeps his job.