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

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.