🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club 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."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.