🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate 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.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice 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 very good situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.