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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals 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. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.