🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing 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 very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.