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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as 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 brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players 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 very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.