The Portuguese Neto Fires Treble as The Blues Provide Liam Rosenior with Happy Return to Hull

Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," 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 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 happy association was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. 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 deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Are Good

That made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.