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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.