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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

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

FA Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.