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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.