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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.