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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.