🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, 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 situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

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

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.