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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing 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 mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

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 teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

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

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.