Alex Neil: Hamilton Accies will thrive on low expectations

Ali Crawford celebrates with Grant Gillespie, Danny Redmond and Alex Neil

Hamilton Academical manager Alex Neil is glad his team can thrive on people having little expectation of them to succeed.

The South Lanarkshire side registered their first points of the season with a deserved 2-0 win away to St Mirren.

"The season's only two games old," Neil told BBC Radio Scotland. "We've shown tonight we can compete at this level.

"But what we've got to do now is show that it's not a one-off and go and continue to play this way."

A man-of-the-match performance from winger Ali Crawford ensured Hamilton left Paisley with three points.

The 23-year-old struck sweetly at the end of an impressive run through the midfield to notch his first ever top-flight goal.

Crawford, who came through the Accies youth set-up, may also be awarded the second goal, which came from his shot and deflected off Buddies defender Marc McAusland.

"I'll give him the double," mused Neil. "I thought the wee man was excellent.

"We've got a young squad and most of them are untested at this level. But we created a lot of chances and could've scored more.

"The good thing for us us is that there are no expectations from the press, the media or anybody else. The only expectations we've got are from ourselves as a group - that we can go and compete at this level and show people we've got good players."