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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.