The Portuguese Neto Fires Hat-Trick as Chelsea Provide Liam Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally 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 good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.