King's Lynn fullback Richard Skelly played for the Norwich City schoolboys earlier in his career alongisde fellow Linnet Steve Lewis . Born in Norwich but brought up in Bury St Edmunds, Richard played for Jewson Eastern Counties side Newmarket Town before moving into league football with Cambridge United. He made his debut against Hartlepool in January 1994 and made one more first team appearance before joining Northampton in June 1994. He made 3 appearances for the Cobblers and spent time on loan with Sudbury (4 games in 1994/95) before moving to King's Lynn in July 1995. Other ex-Canaries at The Walks at that time included fellow defenders Tony Spearing and Matthew Wright .

After three seasons at The Walks, Richard had to leave as his wife took up a new job at Gatwick Airport and to accompany her he transferred his insurance job with Pearl Assurance to their Croydon branch. His last game was against Ashford on January 31st 1998 . Richard was expected to join fellow Dr Martens leaguers Crawley Town but at the eleventh hour, he opted to join Rymans League side Basingstoke for whom he made 21 appearances during 1997/98. Richard moved on to Sutton United during the summer of 1998.

In August 2000, Richard returned to the Dr Martens League by joining Cambridge City. The following summer saw a switch to rivals Chelmsford City. He returned to Cambridge City at the end of February 2002. Released by City at the end of the 2002/03 season, he joined Kings Lynn for a second time. In September 2003, Richard was released by the Linnets and he immediately returned to Cambridgeshire to join Histon.

Unable to establish a place in the Histon first team, Richard moved to Ridgeons leaguers Bury Town in the middle of March 2004.

Following Bury's promotion to the Ryman League Division One North at the end of the 2005/6 season, Richard was appointed as player-manager of Great Shelford in the Cambridgeshire County League.

Richard joined Mildenhall as Player-Coach in early June 2008. He later spent some time as their manager until the end of March 2009 when he quit and was later replaced by Simon Charlton. He returned to Bury Town in mid-May 2009 as Assistant Manager.