The Portuguese Neto Scores Treble as Chelsea Deliver Manager The Boss with Happy Return to Hull City

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation 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."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.