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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.