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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight all game, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over 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 immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key 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 very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.