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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that goal 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. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, 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 stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.