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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.