🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested 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 position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their new manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs 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 progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.