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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key 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 strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute 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 knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.