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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

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. His happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.