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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper'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 understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.