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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent chances to put their side in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

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

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.