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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded 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 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals 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 strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.