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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed 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 moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening 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 the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players 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 position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.