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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"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 means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.