Ali Crawford says that being let go by Hearts as a youth player fired him up to dump the Jambos on Saturday.

Crawford was released by the Tynecastle club at the age of 15 for being too small.

He made a mockery of that decision with an inspired display, netting a wonder-strike to drag Hamilton level before providing the assist for the winner.

He admits that the goal and the win were all the sweeter coming against the club that almost ended his dream of becoming a professional footballer.

"It means so much more to me because Hearts let me go when I was younger, so it was good to get one over them," he said.

"It's the first time I've played against them professionally since they let me go. That gave me an added boost, which helped. It was a great three points.

"I was at Hearts from when I was nine until I was 15-years-old, so six years, and then I've been here ever since.

"They let me go because I was too small, hence my celebration when I got down on my knees and showed them how much it meant to me. That's what my gesture was about.

"It was John Murray who was the Head of Youth at that point and it was ultimately his decision.

"So unlucky to them, eh?

"It was hard to take at the time. I had to go and rebuild my career. I came here and they gave me a great opportunity and it's been great ever since."

Crawford's goal was a thing of beauty, a left foot rocket from distance that gave Hearts' keeper Neil Alexander no chance.

He then swung over a corner with his right foot that eventually led to Jesus Garcia Tena grabbing the winner, and he revealed that his aptitude with both feet is no accident.

"I work on it every day in training," he said.

"I'm confident with either foot to have a go and thankfully I showed today that I can use both feet.

"As soon as it left my foot I thought it was going in. It was right in the top corner and the keeper's got no chance. It was a great feeling."

Despite Hearts' boss Robbie Neilson claiming that the sending off of Callum Paterson was the turning point of the game, Crawford believes Hamilton fully merited their victory.

After racking up their third league win in a row, he says Accies are now set on continuing to confound their doubters.

"We should have been three up after the first half," he said.

"Apart from the goal we had two great chances. Gramoz (Kurtaj) tripped over the ball and Daz (MacKinnon) has blazed one over the bar.

"But it shows the great character that we've got to then comeback from 2-1 down to win 3-2, it's a great feeling.

"Everybody has got us going down from the get-go, so we're just proving everybody wrong again like we did last season.

"It just shows what a great squad we've got and we're going to fight for each other and we showed that against Hearts.

"Hearts have been tipped for the league and we've just gone and beaten them 3-2.

"It shows how good a group we've got and hopefully we can finish as high up the table as possible.

"We've been great and probably should have more points than we have got already."