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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

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

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals 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," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games 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 hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.