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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great fight all game, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.