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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

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

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

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 top division under their manager, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.