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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key players with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.