Freddy Hall, the Bermuda goalkeeper, reeled off a string of superb saves to help Telford United claim an impressive 1-1 draw at home to Grimsby Town in the Vanarama Conference at the weekend.

Liam Watson, the Telford manager, whose side are bottom of the table, heaped praise upon Hall for his eye-catching performance against promotion hopefuls Grimsby, who are in second place.

“The first 20 minutes [Grimsby] did cause us a lot of problems — and we did ride our luck with Freddy pulling off some great saves — but they are without doubt one of the most lively sides we have seen here this season,” said Watson, whose side were beaten 3-1 at home by Braintree United last weekend.

“Grimsby are right up there, and they are going to make chances which are hard for us to deal with, but there wasn’t a lot between us in the second half and we came out and did the job and put on a good performance.

“The disappointing thing when looking back today is the work rate we have put in and to not get a result, especially when you jump back seven days when the wheels fell off last weekend.”

Grimsby dominated the scrappy game but it was Telford who took a surprise lead through defender Andy Parry’s 35th-minute strike.

The visiting side managed to regroup after the break and levelled the score when Jack Mackreth, the Grimsby winger, headed in from close range.

Paul Hurst’s men pushed for a winner but they found Telford’s Hall in impressive form.

“I feel like it’s a day that we’ve let Telford off the hook a little bit,” Hurst, the Grimsby manager, said. “We go a goal behind and get the equaliser in the second half, after that I didn’t think we played quite well enough to create the chances.

“It got a bit scrappy but over the course of the game we should have been probably 3-0 up before they got the goal. You just wonder if it’s going to be one of those days although it’s important that you get something from the game which we have. But there’s no getting away from it that we should have got all three.”

Hall joined Telford from Oxford City, who play in the league below, the Conference North, where he made two appearances.

The 29-year-old started the season at Chester in the Conference where he made four appearances before parting ways with the club after a permanent deal collapsed. Hall will have an opportunity to show Chester what they are missing when Telford travel to his former side today.

n Reggie Lambe was substituted after 76 minutes in Mansfield Town’s 3-0 defeat at high-flying Luton Town at the weekend.

The home side led when striker Paul Benson followed up his own effort to finish on 19 minutes. Winger Shaun Whalley then fired in a cross-shot on 59 minutes after ending a dribble with a powerful finish.

Striker Mark Cullen hit the crossbar in a dominant performance as Luton stay second in the table.

Mansfield drop to eighteenth, seven points above the relegation zone.