The Portuguese Neto Scores Treble as The Blues Deliver Liam The Boss with Happy Return to Hull City

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed 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 hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.