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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice individuals 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 position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, 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 on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.