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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning glorious opportunities 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 opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.