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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

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

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of fight all game, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several 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 very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.