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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.