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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he started 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 immensely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think 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 upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.