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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings 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 am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key individuals 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 Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.