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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side 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 distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players 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 very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. 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. There is still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.