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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion 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 perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.