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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "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 excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar 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 thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players 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 strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped 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 on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.