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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.