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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals 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 strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

That made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.