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Amid sleet, flurries, 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 difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap began 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 danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.