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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think 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 next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.