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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform 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 should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.