Josh Tongue hints at future glories as Nottingham turns the clock back

Supposedly, around 60,000 Nottingham Forest fans will be heading down to London this weekend for their FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City. Not all of them have tickets of course - Forests' allocation is around 34,000 - but that's not the point. Pilgrimages are not solely about making it all the way, just doing as much of the journey as feasibly possible.

But as Nottingham braces for a mass exodus towards Wembley Stadium on Sunday, Friday hinted at more potential sporting success on the horizon. Just a raking Morgan Gibbs-White cross-field pass away from the City Ground, Nottinghamshire were making a play at recapturing their own former glories.

You have to go back to the 2010 summer for the last time a County Championship title was brought back to Trent Bridge. But as the incumbents rolled fellow surprise Division One toppers Sussex for 169, it was hard not to recite lines from the same sheet their footballing neighbours are singing from. Never mind the previous season's dalliance with relegation, meaningful silverware is there to be grasped.

Nottinghamshire of course have more of their race to run, though they have already sprinted through the opening exchanges of this match. A first-innings response already reads 164 for 3, thanks to a measured 67 not out from skipper Haseeb Hameed, and handy accompaniment from Jack Haynes. A dominant position only made possible by ruthless efficiency of their work in the day's first 59 overs after winning the toss and opting to bowl first. After such days, you can forgive the odd speculative look to what the end of the summer might hold.

At the same time, the blueprint for recent Championship success has been to get as much done in this window before the Test-match summer gets underway. Ultimately: use your England players while you still have them. And in what will be Josh Tongue's final appearance for Nottinghamshire - who do not play next week - before Zimbabwe kick things off at this ground in four weeks, his 5 for 44 gave his county the sort of high-class boost every title charge requires.

Searing pace and devastating movement - just ask Tom Alsop, left toe blasted off by an inswinging, 85.7mph yorker for Tongue's first, leaving Sussex 28 for 4 - was allied with impressive control. His speed never veered from the mid-eighties and, whether over or around the wicket, from both ends, his rhythm looked easy on the eye. Even if it has been two years since his two Test caps, it is not cavalier to suggest he is tapering to play crucial roles in the upcoming blockbuster assignments against India this summer, and Australia in the winter to follow. As impressive as he was in that small 2023 window, he looks a different level now. His 14 Division One wickets so far have come at just 20.42.

Following up on impressive opening spells from Brett Hutton (finishing with 4 for 53) and Fergus O'Neill (somehow wicketless), there was scope to scythe Tongue's extra pace to the shorter square boundary. Not so, with the 27-year old's initial five-over spell from the Radcliffe Road End allowing just 13 runs.

An immediate switch to the Stuart Broad End for another three overs was followed by a switch back for the start of the second session, as Oli Carter and James Coles dug in valiantly for a 57-run stand. They were broken a ball after Tongue had ventured to do the same to Coles' lower right-rib, getting one to leap off a length.

Coles strode away to square leg to suppress the blow with a few deeper breaths and some recollected thoughts. Before he had even ventured that way, Tongue called for square leg to sit on the 50-yard boundary. The next ball was even shorter and clothed to an expectant Hameed at mid-on.

The nature of the breakthrough spoke of Tongue's unique qualities, and why England have been so careful with him. At a time when the nip and craft of Hutton and O'Neil had begun to dull with the Dukes ball into its 30-plus overs and a fifth-wicket pair set in their ways, Tongue found something out of the pitch that no one else could.

Hutton tagged back in to remove Sussex captain and run-machine John Simpson, before Carter's attempt to launch Farhan Ahmed down the ground on the charge brought about an outstanding catch from Kyle Verreynne standing up to the stumps.

A fourth Tongue spell soon arrived, though it lasted a single over. In the space of six balls, a sharp edge from Fynn Hudson-Prentice to Joe Clarke's left at first slip, a loose Jack Carson drive to second and a tickle around the corner to give Jayden Seales a golden duck brought about his second five-wicket haul of the summer and the end of Sussex's innings.

"I feel like I'm getting better each time I'm bowling," Tongue said, still only a month into his competitive Nottinghamshire career despite joining the club at the end of 2023.

Having missed the entirety of the 2024 campaign through a mixture of recovering from a right pectoral injury and then tearing his hamstring when on the cusp of a return, it has been a long time coming. Though he marked an overdue debut with 5 for 66 in the second innings of the opening victory against Durham, the progress in the weeks since has been encouraging, underlining the valuable work he was able to do in the off-season with the Lions.

"I had a very good winter building into this summer - just getting the overs and robustness in my body to be able to bowl long spells. I bowled an eight-over spell today and I felt like my pace was up.

"I feel like the work I've done over the winter was proven in that first game against Durham, getting through 40 overs and pulling up okay. Even today, my body feels good and, yeah, I've just got to keep going now."

The struggles endured by Ollie Robinson and Seales at the start of Nottinghamshire's reply - something only the former was able to overcome - highlighted just how impressive Tongue and his teammates had been with the ball. Without the benefit of early morning cloud cover, Sussex relied on misjudgements for their breakthroughs.

The biggest boost for the visitors was seeing the back of Ben Duckett for just nine, in the Test opener's first appearance of the season. An engaging back-and-forth with his former England teammate Robinson involved skewing through a vacant gully region, then almost handing Robinson a return catch. Robinson won out in the end, as Duckett flailed an inside-edge through to Simpson at the end of the 11th over.

Like Tongue, this is set to be Duckett's last appearance before the Zimbabwe Test. A squad is due to be announced in the next week or so, with a meet-up scheduled for the weekend of May 10 in London, clashing with the visit of Hampshire on May 9.

A training camp in Loughborough follows, before the players have time at home ahead of meeting back up at Trent Bridge in the week of that opening Test. By then, Nottinghamshire's dream, like Forest's, could be a little further along.