At fifteen Sandy McLintock seems to have lost his mother, Agnes, whose birth appears to have been in Lochalsh in Ross-shire so a Highlander, yet the following year his father remarried, to Margaret McAllister. However, the family remained tight, that is until in 1876 Sandy himself married Marion Sloan. They were to have six children, four first  two girls, incidentally named Margaret and Agnes, presumably after his step-mother and mother respectively, and four boys. And in the meantime football had arrived in the Vale of Leven, with every likelihood that nineteen year old Alex was at Park Neuk that very day in 1872. Certainly from 1874, a year after it foundation, he became part of the Vale of Leven team that in December 1876 was the first Scottish one to defeat Queen's Park and also of the one that from 1877 would take three, consecutive Scottish Cups. In that team at half-back and described as "as hard as nails" he formed a formidable partnership with Andy McIntyre. Both would go on to to win Scottish caps, McLintock on three occasions between 1875 and 1880, a draw and then two wins, the last at full-back.