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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Are Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.