🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed 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 through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.