🔗 Share this article

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker 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 began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour 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 key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.