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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken 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 deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other times 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 respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.