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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position 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."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.