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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings 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 performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His happy association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, 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 spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.