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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.