MARC Richards felt Swindon Town striker Luke Norris got the goal his efforts all-round efforts have deserved at the weekend after he ended a 10-match drought against Cambridge United.

Richards has proved a revelation in front of goal since signing for Town on a free transfer in January, with his brace at the Abbey Stadium taking him to a haul of nine in 10 starts for his new club.

By contrast, Norris had not hit the back of the net since Richards’ arrival at the Energy Check County Ground but Town’s top scorer set that right against Cambridge to net his 13th goal of the campaign.

Richards says Norris’ quality has never been in doubt and was delighted that the efforts of Town’s front two provided Phil Brown with the perfect start as Swindon manager with a 3-1 win against United.

“Luke has been working really hard but not got any joy in front of goal. He got his just rewards on Saturday,” said Richards.

“I thought his movement in the box for the goal was brilliant and I thought the whole lead-up to the goal was brilliant – it was a good team goal.

“Strikers come in for tough runs in certain parts of the season and Luke had gone a number of games without getting a goal, but I think he got his just rewards on Saturday.”

Brown’s first ploy as Town manager was to switch from their established 3-5-2 formation back to a more traditional 4-4-2 set-up.

Richards felt that had a positive impact at the Abbey Stadium, providing the team with much more solid foundations, although the 35-year-old is still keen to see Town sharpen up further in their defensive third.

“When you play 3-5-2, there can be some spaces down the sides of the centre-halves, so it is a little bit of a grey area,” said Richards.

“At times, we have not dealt with it well enough and going back to a 4-4-2, I think everyone knows their roles and their jobs and it is a good base for us to work from.

“You never give the perfect performance and there are areas from Saturday’s game we can be better at – retaining the ball, playing in the right areas and not giving cheap fouls away.

“League Two is quite often based around teams picking up set-pieces in the final third and that is something we have got to eradicate out of our game.”