Pedro Neto Scores Treble as Chelsea Deliver Liam Rosenior with Joyous Return to Hull City

Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the better chances always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

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

Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.