🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

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

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking 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 miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that aim in mind.

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

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.