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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.