🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal 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 Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.