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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

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

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key 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 very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.