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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good 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 good reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice 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," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.