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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days 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 packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate believing 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.

Delap 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 opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.