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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

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

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals 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 strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.