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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert 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 return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.