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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased 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 attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker 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 hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key 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 situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.