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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support 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 maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs 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 showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.