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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key individuals 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 situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.