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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he began 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.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.