Despite confirmed his interest in MacKeznzie to newspapers and his club's official website, Richardson believes he lost out thanks to media reports.
"We lost him because his name was linked with a move to Saltergate through the media," he said.
"I believe, thanks largely to that publicity, it alerted the other club and he ended up agreeing terms there.
"Neil was a player we were interested in and it's disappointing to miss out but we have other players we have been watching and now we will turn our attentions towards them."