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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the 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 task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

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

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.