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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. 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 two as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.