🔗 Share this article

Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, 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 brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

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

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion 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 great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.