The Portuguese Neto Scores Treble as Chelsea Provide Liam Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently 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 incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.