The Portuguese Neto Scores Hat-Trick as The Blues Deliver Manager The Boss with Happy Return to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," 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 application of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion 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 perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.