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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "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."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.