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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.