Pedro Forward Scores Treble as The Blues Deliver Liam Rosenior with Joyous Return to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.