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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade 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 tick for the Chelsea boss.