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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command 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 fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably 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 came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition 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 positive for the Chelsea boss.