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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before 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 far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.