🔗 Share this article

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to 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 old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.