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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. 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 throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved 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 positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.