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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice players 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 situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next 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 consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.