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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the 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 completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice 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 situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.