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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

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

The Rosenior has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

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

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion 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. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

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

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive 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 progressed to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.