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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key players 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 situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury 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 Are Good

That made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.