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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing 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 miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was 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 Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.