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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

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

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.