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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.