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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.