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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.