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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, 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 their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.