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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club 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."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.