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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.