Pedro Neto Fires Hat-Trick as The Blues Deliver Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of the match. 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 Influence

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, 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 responded to clear the danger.

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

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times 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 regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.