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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume 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 Redemption and Impact

The home side showed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.