The Whites have the 11th best form in the league having picked up 13 points from their last ten games.
Taking cup matches into account, Richards told his players before Tuesday's 1-1 draw at Guiseley that their form isn't "ridiculously bad".
"Even at one nil down at half time I was relatively pleased because the performance levels were back to where they have been," Richards told the press after the game.
"I've said to the lads before we came out, we've won five, I think we've drawn two and lost three and that's not ridiculously bad form, that's pretty positive.
"Not all being in the league but against teams at the same level. Overall lads should be positive going into games week in week out because we know we can compete.
"Not only compete, but we should be picking up more points than what we are doing."
Hereford face a 560-mile round trip to Blyth Spartans for their league game on Saturday, but will stay overnight.
For Richards three points are vital to start lifting his side up the table, but performance levels that they'll continue to focus on.
Richards added: "Always like an overnighter, only time I get a good night's sleep to be brutally honest, away from the kids and family!
"I think they're unbeaten from late October or early November, if you look at the run they've been on. We always seem to play a team in form.
"They're in really fine form so it'll be a really tough game.
"We need that away win we've been searching for, there's been some good performances away from home but we want to pick up that vital three points to lift us from around that bottom four.
"You go on a run of wins and you'll bounce up the table, go on a run of defeats and you'll come straight back down.
"For me it's the performance levels, if we keep those performance levels like they were today (Tuesday) we'll win more than we lose. That's what we'll continue to focus on and hopefully we put in another good performance at Blyth."