Rotherham United head coach praised his side's spirit in their narrow 2-1 defeat to Play-off hopefuls Hull City on Tuesday night.
The Millers boss insisted that he couldn't fault the effort and endeavour that his side displayed in the midweek meeting with the Tigers, in a game in which a period of around 10 minutes saw the visitors overturn a one goal deficit had seen the hosts take the early initiative through a Christ Tiehi strike.
Speaking after the game, Richardson said:
"I thought that the way we started the game was excellent.
"I thought we were on the front foot and we'd taken the ascendancy and probably for the neutral it was a good game.
"There was a bit of a mad five or ten minutes in the second half that cost us and you can see the quality going through the players that Hull had on the pitch.
"For large parts we went toe-to-toe with a good team with good players. We'll dust ourselves off, work hard and I think we've got a choice every time we come into the building. We have to make a fist of it and make sure that we give a good account of ourselves for the shirt every single time that we come to work and I demand that and that's what we'll continue to do.
"I certainly won't accept any standards that are below the level we expect. They've got to stay strong and we've got to make sure that we keep pushing each other forwards.
"It's easy to shy away from and be negative in situations like this, but we've got a choice and we have to be positive and wear that shirt with pride."