🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals 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 strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.