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Sunderland's decision to sack manager Martin O'Neill on Saturday evening lead to red faces at BBC Radio 5 Live - as their attempts to get reaction to the decision backfired spectacularly.

The station's late-night Stephen Nolan show thought they had lined up a chat with former Sunderland defender Michael Gray to discuss O'Neill's firing and where the relegation-threatened club goes from here.

However, they had contacted the wrong Michael Gray.

Instead of the north-east-accented former England international, they had got hold of Michael Gray, a student and writer from Glasgow - and unwittingly put him on the air.

Gray (the student) later wrote on his blog:

"Radio 5 Live called me back to confirm that I would be on the radio in five minutes.

"I was unsure about going ahead. The feedback from friends on Facebook included helpful advice such as, ‘This is hilarious’, ‘Surely they’ll cut you off’ and ‘Do it in a Sunderland accent!’

(Image: Twitter)

(Image: Getty)

"I was put through to the show. I can’t remember most of what I said. It wasn’t very interesting. Most sporting speculation isn’t. My intention was to keep my comments realistic so they didn’t chuck me off the line!

"I slipped a few clichés in: ‘relegation dog fight’, ‘it’s time to regroup’, ‘I wouldn’t want to pre-empt the Board’s response’, ‘We should thank Martin for the good work he has done at the club’.

"I doubt the other Michael Gray would have said anything that different."

To listen to Michael 'Not that one" Gray's views, go here (it starts six minutes in).