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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the better chances always came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform 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 example of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Promising

That made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.