deal was done straight away. Under Robson, Richardson made an instant impact on West Brom's quest to escape relegation. He was a regular in West Brom's first eleven, playing in central midfield. He scored three goals from 12 appearances as West Bromwich successfully avoided relegation, despite starting the final day of the season on the bottom of the table. At the start 2005–06, Richardson declined a further loan spell at West Brom in an attempt to win a regular place at Old Trafford. He made his break in Manchester United's first eleven in September 2005, when he appeared as an emergency left back, in place of the injured Gabriel Heinze. He soon returned to midfield however, where he made several good performances. In October 2005, Richardson celebrated his 21st birthday by signing a new four-year contract with United. He went on to appear 36 times and score six goals that season. In 2006–07, Richardson's chances to establish himself in the first team were limited, mainly playing in the League Cup and the FA Cup. However, Richardson felt Alex Ferguson's wrath as the youngster shouldered some of the blame for United's below-par performance against Crewe Alexandra in the League Cup. Ferguson publicly declared that Richardson and others would benefit from spending some time in United's reserve team. He scored one of United's goals in the 4–1 FA Cup semi-final win over Watford, that put them into the final at the new Wembley Stadium. Sunderland On 16 July 2007, Richardson joined Sunderland for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5.5 million. He signed a four-year contract with Sunderland, under the management of his former United captain Roy Keane. After an indifferent start, it was discovered that he had a stress fracture of the spine. This led to him being out of action for almost four months. He scored his first goal for Sunderland on 29 December 2007 against Bolton Wanderers. Richardson scored two goals in the 2–0 win against Portsmouth at the Stadium of Light on 13 January 2008, also striking the bar to miss out on his hat-trick. Since then he suffered a hamstring injury in training then this injury recurred in Sunderland's 3–0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. On 23 August 2008, Richardson scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the 56th minute, in a 2–1 win at White Hart Lane. Richardson took a free kick that hit