The Portuguese Neto Scores Treble as The Blues Provide Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull

Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key 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 position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.