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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.