The Portuguese Neto Scores Hat-Trick as The Blues Provide Manager The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that aim 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 Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.