🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders 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 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.