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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he started to run away 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 miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.