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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good 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 welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority 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 goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved 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 games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.