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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the banks 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 might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key individuals 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 strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.