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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

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

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening 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 through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice 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 strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.