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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

The Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning 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 opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced off the bar, and he began 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.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out 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," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.