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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive association was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage 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.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.