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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed 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 immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion 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 matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, 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 last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.