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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "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."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper 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 Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear 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 opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine 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 last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.