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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip 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 support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great spirit all game, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.