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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great fight all game, but the better chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.