Pedro Neto Fires Hat-Trick as The Blues Provide Manager Rosenior with Joyous Return to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

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

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.