Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.
"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."
The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.
Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.
Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.
But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.
Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.
He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.
Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.
Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.
At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.
"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."
There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.
The result resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.
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