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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had crossed 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 miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been 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 goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.