Marc John Richards (born 8 July 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.
A youth team player at Hednesford Town, he turned professional at Blackburn Rovers in 2000. He spent the 2001–02 season on loan at Crewe Alexandra, Oldham Athletic, and Halifax Town. He then spent much of the 2002–03 season on loan at Swansea City before he was allowed to join Northampton Town in the summer of 2003. He scored eleven goals for the club in 2003–04, though he was sent out on loan to Rochdale in the latter half of the 2004–05 campaign after struggling with injury. He joined Barnsley in August 2005. He went on to score twelve goals in 2005–06, helping the club win promotion to the Championship via the play-offs. Released at the end of the 2006–07 season, he signed with Port Vale in June 2007. After five goals in 2007–08, he became the club's top-scorer for four consecutive seasons with 11 goals in 2008–09, 22 in 2009–10, 20 in 2010–11, and 17 in 2011–12. He signed with Chesterfield in May 2012 and played for the club in the 2014 final of the Football League Trophy before helping them to win the League Two title in 2013–14. He returned to Northampton Town in May 2014 and finished as the club's top-scorer for two consecutive seasons, helping Northampton to win the League Two title in 2015–16. He signed with Swindon Town in January 2018 and, after one and a half seasons with Swindon, moved on to Cambridge United in August 2019. He joined non-League side Yeovil Town in January 2020 and moved on to St Ives Town seven months later.
He scored over 200 goals in around 700 professional appearances. He has also represented England at under-18 and under-20 levels.
Club career
Blackburn Rovers Richards started his professional career at Blackburn Rovers, but was on the books of Conference side Hednesford Town before moving to Ewood Park. He made his Rovers debut under manager Graeme Souness in a 2–0 defeat to West Ham United at Upton Park in the League Cup on 31 October 2000; he was replaced by David Dunn after 68 minutes.
He was taken on a one-month loan by Dario Gradi at First Division side Crewe Alexandra at the start of the 2001–02 season. There he scored his first career goal in a League Cup victory against York City at Bootham Crescent on 21 August; his headed goal levelled the tie at 2–2 in extra time. He was subsequently booked for over-celebrating, though this did not stop him from scoring the winning goal in the penalty shoot-out. He left Gresty Road with one goal in five games, and in October 2001 joined Andy Ritchie's Second Division Oldham Athletic in another month. He played six games for Oldham, scoring once against Tranmere Rovers in the Football League Trophy, again with a header. He spent two months on loan at Alan Little's Halifax Town from February 2002, but remained goalless in his five games for the struggling Third Division club.
In November 2002, he went out to Swansea City on loan for the rest of the season. Brian Flynn's "Swans" avoided relegation out of the English Football League by just a single point. However, Richards managed a respectable tally of seven goals in 17 games. He got his first league goal at Vetch Field on 30 November, again with a header, to wrap up a 2–0 victory over Shrewsbury Town. On 15 February, he scored twice against Cambridge United, and also had a goal disallowed for offside. He received his first sending off a week later, after reacting badly to a foul by Hartlepool United captain Michael Barron. After discovering he was released from his contract at Blackburn in April 2003, Richards aimed to sign with Swansea permanently, but instead signed a two-year deal with Northampton Town.
Northampton Town Though he scored twice at Sixfields in the FA Cup victory over non-League Weston-super-Mare, it took 27 games before he bagged his first league goal for the "Cobblers". The goal finally came on 17 February 2004, in a 2–1 win at Darlington. He then had one of the best games of his career on 27 March, when he scored all four goals of the game against Macclesfield Town within the opening 39 minutes. Struggling with illness, he scored in the play-off semi-finals against Mansfield Town, though his side crashed out on penalties. He ended the 2003–04 campaign with 11 goals in 52 games.
His second season at Sixfields was blighted by injury. Picking up a knee injury in September 2004, he had recovered by November, but after making his return he ruptured his knee ligament, keeping him out of action for a further three months. In March 2005 he was returning to fitness, and so was loaned out to Steve Parkin's Rochdale to aid with his recovery. After two goals in five games he returned to the "Cobblers". Finding out he had no future at Northampton under Colin Calderwood, he had a trial with Bristol Rovers, before joining Barnsley in August 2005.
Barnsley Described as "a young Neil Shipperley" by manager Andy Ritchie, his initial deal was short-term, so after fitting in well at the club he was offered an extension to his contract in December 2005. In 2005–06, Barnsley were promoted to the Championship through the play-offs. He started the play-off final victory over Swansea City at the Millennium Stadium, before being taken off for Tommy Wright after 70 minutes. In total he played 41 of the "Tykes" 46 League One games during the campaign, and scored 12 goals.
In January 2007, he was due to sign with Port Vale in part-exchange for Leon Constantine. However, he remained at Oakwell after the deal fell through. He was released from his contract in May 2007, despite making 37 appearances in the 2006–07 season.
Port Vale In June 2007, Richards joined Port Vale on a two-year deal; he was one of manager Martin Foyle's last signings. He became the club captain and quickly established himself as one of the club's better players. Richards suffered with an ankle injury during the 2007–08 season. He recovered towards the end of the season and began to find his goalscoring form once again. However, this was not enough to save Lee Sinnott's "Valiants" from relegation out of League One. At the end of the season, the club were forced to accept a £100,000 bid from Cheltenham Town due to a release clause in his contract, though chairman Bill Bratt rated him as a £300,000 player. Turning down the chance of a move, he instead signed a one-year contract extension to keep him at Vale Park until the summer of 2010. He went through a spell of injuries and suspensions during the 2008–09 season which caused him to miss almost twenty matches for Dean Glover's side. On 20 December, he was sent off against Chesterfield for violent conduct and handed a three match suspension. An Achilles injury picked up in late March kept him out of the team for the rest of the season. Despite this his eleven goals made him the club's top scorer.
He lost the captain's armband in the 2009–10 season, when new manager Micky Adams gave the armband to new signing Tommy Fraser, Richards being made vice-captain. However, this did not seem to affect him negatively as he scored twice against Championship side Sheffield United to give Vale a shock 2–1 giant-killing victory in the League Cup First Round. With a winning goal over Darlington the following weekend he took his tally to four goals in five games. He was transfer listed in late September, along with the entire Port Vale squad, after manager Micky Adams saw his team slip to a third consecutive defeat. Despite five goals in his first 14 games of the season, Richards was targeted by the 'boo-boys' at Vale Park after a few weak performances. He claimed to be 'gutted' by the fan's lack of faith in his commitment.
The striker found his scoring form by the season's mid-way point. He managed to equal his previous season's best tally of twelve goals by January 2010. Despite this, he told the press that he did not take a fresh contract in May for granted. However, Adams insisted that he would offer Richards a new contract. On 13 March, Richards scored his first professional hat-trick in six years, during a 5–0 win over Chesterfield at Saltergate; he scored with a lob, a long range strike with his left foot, and a header. He finished the campaign with a tally of 22 goals – more than double his tally for the previous season, and was the club's top scorer for the second consecutive season. Richards was eager to stay at the club, and signed a new contract to keep him in Burslem until the summer of 2012. Adams was confident Richards would sign, despite a lucrative offer from Carlisle United and interest from numerous League One and Scottish Football League sides.
Before the 2010–11 season, Richards set himself a target of thirty goals. He quickly established a deadly strike partnership with new teammate, namesake Justin Richards. Sent off against Burton Albion at the start of January 2011, more damaging to Richards' golden boot hopes and Vale's promotion ambitions was news that he would be sidelined for six weeks with muscle tear in his thigh. With Fraser and Adams leaving the club, new boss Jim Gannon handed Richards the captaincy in February 2011. On 26 February, he marked his return from injury with a goal against Aldershot Town in a 2–1 win – his first goal in three months. On 29 March he scored his 100th career goal, helping Vale to beat Lincoln City 2–1. After hitting the twenty goal mark at the penultimate game of the season, Richards became the first Vale player to score twenty goals for two seasons running since Martin Foyle (the man who originally signed him for the club) in 1993–94 and 1994–95.
Despite only turning 29 weeks before the start of the 2011–12 season, the departure of namesake Justin Richards left him as the club's most senior professional. After scoring on the opening day against Crawley Town, Richards then spent a month on the sidelines with an ankle injury. He made his return to the starting eleven against Plymouth Argyle on 10 September, only to end up with a straight red card and three match ban for an incident with Warren Feeney, an incident the striker described as 'handbags'. He returned to the first-team on 1 October for only his fourth appearance of the campaign, and bagged both of Vale's goals against Rotherham United. However, after a further six games he was sidelined again due to a recurrence of his ankle injury, and had to wait until December before he returned to action. The injury required surgery to heal fully, however, Richards chose to postpone the operation to try to help the "Valiants" into an unlikely play-off spot. Despite the club entering administration in March, Richards refused the opportunity to jump ship to promotion hopefuls Crawley Town. The administrators also rejected a loan offer from Shrewsbury Town. He finished the season with 17 goals in 36 games, thereby becoming the club's top scorer for the fourth season in a row. He was one goal short of the League Two Golden Boot, as Jack Midson, Izale McLeod, Lewis Grabban and Adebayo Akinfenwa had all scored 18 goals.
Chesterfield After weeks of speculation, Richards signed a two-year deal with Chesterfield in May 2012. Manager John Sheridan and Chief Executive Chris Turner persuaded Richards to make the switch to the League Two side after a multitude of meetings with the player and a large increase in wages. He had a poor start to the 2012–13 season, as the "Spireites" struggled to perform; he also spent six weeks out injured with ankle troubles. The club's fortunes began to improve though after Sheridan was sacked and replaced with Paul Cook. Richards also began to regain his form, and scored five goals in his last five games to end the season on 12 goals in 37 appearances.