BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Arron Lindop has been surrounded by football all his life.
Warrington-born, his father Dave has been a groundsman at Old Trafford for three decades. He grew up supporting Manchester United, attending training sessions of the Premier League club and watching them up close.
“I’m a big Man United fan,” he tells rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“My dad’s worked for the club since he was 17. As a kid I used to go to the training ground quite a bit, go to Old Trafford. The Carrington bit was where my memories were as a kid, it was pretty cool.”
A left-sided midfielder, Lindop also showed some promise in the beautiful game as an athletic youngster. But at the age of 15, with offers from Football League clubs and a deal on the table from his hometown side Warrington Wolves, he faced a pivotal call – concentrate on rugby league full-time or focus on football.
“I played quite a lot of sports growing up, but it was always rugby and football as my main two,” he explains.
“But growing up I preferred football, I don’t know, maybe it was because my mates played it. When I was about 15 I had to make a decision to stick to football or go and play rugby for Warrington.
“The offers were better for rugby league and I spoke to my family and chose rugby, but growing up I loved playing football. I could have gone to Stockport and Accrington Stanley, I went for a few trials there.
“But my dad said to me as a kid, look you’re a great footballer but you’re not good enough, which is probably a good thing.
“It was a harsh reality as he’s been around the setups and seen kids who have come through and been amazing and have been dropped.
“So he was the one who kind of persuaded me to go down the rugby league path. I’ve got no regrets.”
It’s a decision the 19-year old has not lamented as he readies for his Wembley debut. On Saturday the Wolves clash with Hull KR in the Challenge Cup final, with the outside back hoping to grace the iconic turf in London.
Lindop has been one of the bright spots in a difficult season for Warrington. The Wolves are eighth in Super League, and have only won six of 13 games in an injury-hit campaign.
But Lindop has been a regular, claiming six tries in 10 appearances. Either in the centres or on the wing, the academy product has continually caught the eye.
After bagging a try on his Super League debut last year, the blonde bomber with speed to burn has taken his chance in the first-team and ran with it.
One member of his family especially happy with his progression has been his grandmother Doreen. A member of the club’s staff in player administration, Doreen has worked for Warrington for half a century in a variety of roles.
Despite her age, she still volunteers and helps the club. Legend is a word that gets bandied about in sport a lot, but speak to Warrington officials and that’s how they’ll describe Grandma Lindop.
“She’s more of a legend than I’ll ever be, everyone loves her,” Arron says.
“I get nicknamed Doreen, off Stef [Ratchford] every day. That just shows… when I came into the first-eam everyone knew me as Doreen’s grandson.
“At the minute she helps the overseas players, setting them up with a house, doing all the paperwork and making sure they’re all settled in. I think she’s 80 years old and still cracking on with stuff like that.
“She’s proud of me… but I don’t just do this for myself, my whole family are Warrington fans. I’m there to make myself proud but obviously I do it for them as well.”
The Wolves face a herculean task on Saturday. Hull KR are on top of Super League and have lost just one game all year.
“There’s no doubt they’re a great team but just because they’re top of Super League doesn’t mean we can’t go out there and get the job done,” Lindop insists.
“We played them a few weeks ago, we had a few injuries but that’s not really an excuse.
“If we stick to our game plan I think the boys will be pretty confident we can go out and win, but here’s no doubt it will be a battle out there because credit to Hull KR, they’re going pretty well.”
The bookies have Warrington as the underdogs, a label that sits perfectly fine with Lindop.
“Maybe we are underdogs but as players we probably prefer that,” he admits.
“We probably like being underdogs because that’s where we thrive. We have a saying, we thrive under adversity.
“Going down to 12 men, injuries, that’s where we as a team come out and perform.
“That’s all outside noise anyway. If we’re not favourites it doesn’t matter to us, we know what we have to go out and do and get the job done.”