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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical 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 intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.