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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several 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 position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.