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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably 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 Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 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 set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.