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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players 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 very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Are Promising

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