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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap 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 crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good 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 progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.