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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, 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 opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better chances always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned 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 should play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.