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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. 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 showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.