Shaun Williamson played Shaun Goater on Soccer AM after booking mishap

Shaun Williamson had to play Shaun Goater after a major booking mishap on 'Soccer AM'.

The former 'EastEnders' actor found himself in a very unusual role back in 2011 when the weekly Sky Sports football show's team accidentally booked him for an interview instead of the Manchester City legend, who scored 103 goals in 212 appearances for the club between 1998 and 2003.

Reflecting on the awkward moment, presenter Max Rushden told the 'Football Weekly' podcast: “We booked Shaun Goater for the show and then the guy Chris who was booking the footballers texted his agent saying, 'What’s he up to?’

"This is on the Friday night. We’ve cut all the Shaun Goater footage and everything. And the reply from Shaun Goater’s agent was: 'He’s just doing a bit of writing. he’s not going to do panto this year.’

"That’s when Chris realised he’d not booked Shaun Goater but Shaun Williamson - Barry from 'EastEnders.' "

Thankfully, the 56-year-old actor was a total professional and took the situation in his stride as he agreed to do the interview as if he was actually Goater.

Max added: "As you can imagine Shaun Williamson was brilliant and he just answered all the Shaun Goater questions and did it all professionally.

“It was a great moment. It was Friday night. We couldn’t be bothered to change the questions. We just asked, 'Could you just do the Shaun Goater interview?’

"And he did it brilliantly. He did all his research. He talked about great goals he scored for Man City, talked about playing for Bermuda, all of that. He was an absolute consummate professional.”

The two Shauns - who had actually appeared on the same episode of the show a few years earlier - reunited on the sofa a few months later, and the soap star was in good spirits about the mixup.

He quipped: "I thought it was hilarious but I kept quiet because it paid my mortgage for the month!"

And Goater laughed: "I had no idea whatsoever!"