The Royals travel to the DW Stadium looking to build on the momentum generated by last weekend's emphatic win at MK Dons, a result which came despite the continued absence of leading scorer Jack Marriott and attacking midfielder George Earthy.

Questions had been raised over where Reading's goals would come from without two of their most dangerous attacking players, but Richardson feels his squad have already provided the perfect answer.

"Winning football games, you can't just rely on one person," said the Reading boss.

"Jack and George are out at the minute, they both carry goals and we know how good they are. We want them back as soon as we can because we know how healthy our squad can be.

"But it's even more of a healthy answer when we're still scoring goals emphatically."

Rather than depending on a single goalscorer, Richardson has been encouraged by the way goals are being shared throughout the side, something he believes has been a hallmark of his teams throughout his managerial career.

"All my teams have managed to spread the goals throughout the team and this team seems to be doing the same, so it's positive," he said.

Reading head to Wigan in confident mood after producing one of their strongest away performances of the season at MK Dons, where Richardson felt the result accurately reflected the level of display his side produced.

"We're taking momentum in from last weekend and looking for a similar level of performance as we were at MK Dons," he said.

"I thought last weekend the result matched the performance, which was pleasing and fingers crossed Saturday we can do the same."

Despite Wigan sitting at the bottom of the League One table, Richardson insists league positions mean little at this stage of the campaign and expects a difficult afternoon against his former club.

"We've got to always raise our levels and push through our barrier because there's no team in this league that's a given," he said.

"We know it'll be a tough game. They've got some good players, but if we give a level of performance like we have been doing, fingers crossed we can get that positive result we're looking for."

For Richardson, who spent more than six years at Wigan, winning promotion as manager and previously helping the club achieve promotion as part of the coaching staff, a return to familiar surroundings will carry plenty of memories.

But sentiment will be put to one side when the action gets underway.

"It's nice if you win," he said.

"I've still got a good relationship with the fans and staff there, but make no bones about it, I will be doing everything to try and win on Saturday."

With a busy run of fixtures ahead, including home matches against Leyton Orient and Barnsley next week, Richardson is determined to ensure his side maintain the standards they set at MK Dons.

"We'll just take the first one on its merit," he said.

"We'll be driving for that performance level and the outputs.

"Physically we were excellent on Saturday and reached really good numbers individually and collectively. That's our bar now and we've got to push through that."