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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.