🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.