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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, 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 very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.