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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.