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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started 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 danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.