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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

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

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.