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

Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice 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 situation in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.