The Portuguese Neto Fires Treble as The Blues Deliver Liam The Boss with Joyous Return to Hull

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals 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 very good position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.