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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight all game, but the better chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.