🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

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

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong 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 got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.