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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.