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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

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

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.