The Portuguese Neto Fires Treble as The Blues Deliver Manager Rosenior with Happy Return to Hull City

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.